


Glass Roses

by PessimisticLatte (itwasamistakeokay)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Knows, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Identity Reveal, Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng Fluff, Adrien struggles with things, Adrinette April 2020, Adrinette | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Aged Up, Bad Parent Gabriel Agreste, Chloe Bourgeois is gay, Chloe is a good person, Chloe's Dad accepts that she's gay, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, Complete, F/F, F/M, Finished, Fluff, Gabriel doesn't deserve redemption, Gabriel gets what he deserves, Identity Reveal, Marichat | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Miraculous Team, Nathalie adopts Adrien, Not Beta Read, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Soulmates, Team as Family, There will be spelling mistakes, chloe gets the redemption arc she deserves, definitely not slow burn, gabriel agreste is a shit parent, lukagami, not edited, there will be many spelling mistakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 79,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23553811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itwasamistakeokay/pseuds/PessimisticLatte
Summary: Sometimes, things aren't what they seem and the people you'd least expect turn out to be someone you don't know. Just when he thought things had settled down and become normal, one revelation turned everything on its head. The two girls he loved turned out to be the same person and the absent father he'd mourned turned out to be the person who had caused so many people in his life so much pain. Adrien knows what's right and he knows what needs to be done but, when the time comes, will he be strong enough to expose his father for who he really is?Marinette never expected him to love her back, let alone discover that the person she'd slowly been falling for was a side of him she didn't know existed, but, now that they're together, she's more determined than ever to keep him safe. Things generally don't go as planned, though, and upon discovering who is behind the guise of Hawkmoth from the woman who worked beside him, no less, she's not sure if she's ready to take that person away from him yet without providing a chance for redemption.Written by @PessimisticLatte on Tumblr
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Chloé Bourgeois/Sabrina Raincomprix, Emilie Agreste/Nathalie Sancoeur
Comments: 10
Kudos: 111





	1. Chapter 1

Summer had been a welcome arrival for Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Even with her summer job working in her parents bakery, the lack of schoolwork to complete allowed her to drop one of the many responsibilities she juggled daily in the circus she lovingly called her life. Being Ladybug was incredible and allowed her to be above and beyond what she had once been able to do to help her fellow Parisians; but, over the summer, Chat Noir, her partner, had disappeared. For the first week of the holidays, patrolling without him had been strange and daunting. The constant presence of her jovial partner had never been a weight in her already heavily anchored life; despite not knowing who he was behind the mask, Mari trusted him with her life and her secrets, even if she couldn’t tell him the whole truth. She wouldn’t admit that she missed him, not even to Tikki, her constant companion, but she’d accepted weeks ago that she did and that she was anticipating his return.  
Alya and Nino had kept Marinette company during the few days when she wasn’t laden with pastries and overwhelmed with deliveries. Her best friends may not have known that they kept her mind from wandering to the cocky green eyed boy in the skintight catsuit, but they did and their presence had been one of the few things Mari would admit to herself that had kept her from wondering who the boy behind that mask was. Some of their classmates had been whisked away by their families for the holidays, opting to spend the next few months basking in all sorts of paradise. Adrien and his father had gone to New York, Gabriel’s newest designs had dropped in the States so Gabriel had taken his son and muse with him to present this season’s collection. Luka and Juleka, as well as Rose, were travelling through the inland rivers of Europe on Anarka Couffaine’s houseboat. Kagami had gone home to Japan for her cousin’s wedding, spending the months in the humid heat of Tokyo with her family.

Adrien made sure to send Marinette pictures from the shows, the gorgeous fabrics he sent images of had her wishing that she’d slipped into his suitcase and made her way to New York with him. He enjoyed calling her and telling her about the people he met, the things he saw and the ins and outs of the bustling New York fashion elite. She envied him but Marinette knew that it had been a long time since Adrien had spent more than a minute with his father, so she knew that his trip was far more important than the silly details he spouted over the phone. She still had a crush on him and she was thankful that he couldn’t see the blush that painted her cheeks whenever he told her how much she would love it in New York or told his new American friends to give him a minute because he was talking to his best friend. If being his best friend was as good as Marientte could get, she wasn’t going to complain, it was better than being no one to him at all.  
Mari had saved the songs that Luka sent her while he was on his trip, making a playlist of them on her phone to listen to in the long, hot hours of the night when she missed the soothing presence of her musically talented friend. Talking to Kagami wasn’t as easy as speaking to the boys. Adrien tended not to sleep as New York didn’t either and Luka was never more than a text or phone call away, but Kagami kept a strict schedule, attending kendo lessons when she had the spare time and fulfilling the wishes of her mother and grandparents. Kagami always tried to make time for Mari, but the differences in their time zones had made it hard; when Kagami had time to talk, Mari tended to have fallen asleep beside the phone waiting for her friend to ring. They’d eventually resorted to texting and using snapchat over calling; that way they could talk and see each others faced without the immense stress of coordinating times.

Kagami sent Mari pictures of the ornate fabrics that surrounded her in Japan as well as the Japanised western fashion that filled the streets around her. Marinette had been inspired by the clothes Kagami had shown her and had decided to surprise her friend with a hand-painted, hand-embroidered kimono jacket when she returned home; something that Kagami could wear to an important function or on days when she opted to dress down. 

Patrolling as Ladybug had been strange without Chat and Mari had been ever so slightly sad that she couldn’t call on Ryuko to join her; Rena Rouge and Carapace had been more than enough to fill the void of her other companions, both Alya and Nino had questioned where Chat was, leaving Marinette to make up a half-assed excuse about his whereabouts. Alya, ever the curious and thorough reporter, had managed to weasel the truth out after a few days; Mari finally admitting that she didn’t know where he was and that she hoped he was safe. Alya, as Rena, had assured her that if Chaton had gotten in trouble with Hawkmoth they would definitely know about it; that had eased Mari’s worry slightly but not so much that she stopped missing the blonde cat. Master Fu had been the bridge between Mari’s civilian life and Chat Noir’s, behind the mask he was still nameless but Mari trusted Fu to make sure her messages reached him. Fu was gone now, he had been for a while. Since Chloe had become Miracle Queen and called other Miraculous users to her aid, and Hawkmoth had made off with Master Fu’s tablet, Mari had been the guardian of the miraculous box but she hadn’t been brave enough to ask Chat to reveal himself, to possibly put himself at risk, before summer had come and the two person patrols had become one person patrols.

It hadn’t been an easy decision on Mari’s part to give Alya and Nino the Fox and Turtle miraculouses permanently; but she knew, especially after the battle with Miracle Queen, that she would need Rena Rouge and Carapace in the future. She was still debating giving Luka the Snake miraculous permanently when he came back but the longer he was gone, the harder the decision seemed to become. There hadn’t been an akuma attack since summer had begun, though Marinette hadn’t been willing to take chances and stop her patrolling, which had been almost as much of a miracle as Tikki’s existence but she guessed that even super-villains needed holidays too. Mari had spent longer than she was happy to admit mulling over the possibility that Hawkmoth could have a family. Maybe he was a father, a husband, a brother; for some reason, the idea of him being part of a family seemed far fetched and strange.

She promised herself, though, that she wouldn’t consider all the reasons why he would need the Cat and Ladybug miraculouses if he was indeed a father or husband, a family man in general. Mari knew the possibilities the joining of Tikki and Plagg would give, they could save a life or end one; if Hawkmoth needed them for the former, Mari didn’t know if she’d be able to withhold them from him. She tried to picture Hawkmoth sitting next to a child in a hospital bed vowing to cure them and she’d felt a deep, devastating pang in her chest; so Mari tried to abandon the notion of who Hawkmoth could be behind the mask. Those questions though, had raised more. Could Mayura be Hawkmoth’s wife? Could they both be fighting to save someone incredibly dear to them? They were thoughts not easily banished from Marinette’s head, so she thanked Alya and Nino’s almost constant presence for stopping her falling down an endless rabbit hole.

~~~~  
After a day spent lounging by the pool with Alya, supervising her younger twin sisters as they splashed in the crystal blue water, Marinette had retired to her balcony with a book. The heat was getting to Tikki, tiring the kwami out quite a lot even when she wasn’t helping Marinette patrol as Ladybug, so she slept on Mari’s pillow, curled into a tight ball. A soft breeze came off the Seine and stirred the wispy hairs of Mari’s fringe as she lazily turned the page of her book. The sun was beginning to set, painting the world in golds and pinks and oranges, gilding the metal railing skirting the balcony and causing the teal polish on her toes to turn a glowing green. With a contented sigh, Mari wriggled slightly backwards into the plush pillows of her daybed and basked in the warmth of the evening.  
“You look comfy there, Princess,” the sudden voice caused her to jump, dropping her book over the side of the daybed with a thunk. Brushing her fringe behind her ear and picking up the book, Mari looked at the boy now lounging on the railing in front of her. “Sorry to scare you. If you’d thrown that book any further, it would’ve been a cat-astrophe.”  
“Kitty? When did you get here?” Mari pressed her bookmark between the pages of her book and placed it gently on the daybed, walking over to the railing to lean beside the lounging, black-clad boy.  
“Oh, did ya miss me, mi princesa?” Chat Noir purred, resting his angular chin on a gloved fist, looking at Marinette with intent green eyes. An unwelcome heat rose in her cheeks, he’d been gone for weeks and she’d missed him. She wouldn’t tell him that she’d missed him because she couldn’t stand the thought of inflating his ego but that didn’t stop her cheeks from flushing with red at his words. “You’re no fun, princesa, but I got here just now. I saw a pretty girl sitting all alone on a balcony and thought she could use the company of a rather dashing cat.”  
Mari swatted Chat’s arm playfully, the boy had the good humour to pretend that her weak smack almost sent him tumbling over the railing as he laughed with her. Adrien had almost always been on Mari’s mind but since summer started and Chat had disappeared, it had been the leather wrapped boy who had plagued her thoughts. She’d missed his smile, the hint of elongated canines that peeked between his lips when he grinned; his dimples, the elegant richness of his laugh, the corn-silk gold of his hair. She’d missed his jokes too, even if they were bad.  
“Kinda,” Mari looked out toward the fading sunset, the rays rippling along the Seine. Chat looked puzzled, the pupils of his large eyes growing wider, almost dwarfing the green that ringed them.  
“Kinda what?” He tilted his head lazily, his eyes scanning Marinette’s face.  
“I kinda missed you, okay, you doofus?” She let out a loud laugh as she admitted it. Internally cursing herself. She wasn’t going to tell him but she had missed him, she’d missed him a lot.  
“Well, I kinda missed you too, Princess,” A smile broke across his face, his dimples dipping in his cheeks and causing his luminescent green eyes to glow with a welcome mirth. He slipped off the railing and leaned beside her, his elbow resting centimetres away from hers, Chat could feel the embarrassed warmth rolling off Marinette as they stood together in silence. Silence never felt awkward for them, it was welcome and cleansing, he never had to hide who he was when he was with her. Chat had never asked Marinette if he could show her who he was behind the mask and when he’d made the choice to befriend her as Chat, he understood Ladybug’s hesitance to show him her identity. He knew Mari was her friend, or he guessed that she was, Ladybug always seemed to protect Marinette just when she needed it; and he couldn’t imagine anything worse than Hawkmoth using Mari to get to him or Ladybug. Mari always seemed so delicate, so fragile and breakable, the thought of her being hurt scared him more than anything.  
“Where were you, Kitty? Where did you go?” Mari nudged his elbow with hers.  
“A cat never hunts and squeaks, princess, but I’ve been here and there and everywhere, just wherever I wanted to be,”  
“So you didn’t want to be here?” Mari frowned, her forehead creasing as she met his gaze with her own. Eyes of blue met eyes of green and a calm, trusting energy sizzled between them.  
“Well, if here means where you are then it depends where you are. If here means your balcony then I must tell you, Princess, that there is more to see of the world than the view from your balcony. You may not have been on my travels in person but you were in spirit and I wouldn’t return from my trip without something as pretty as you,” Her cheeks heated further as Chat pulled a small glass figure from a hidden pocket in his suit. The figure was a carved glass rose, the petals a pale, dusty pink held on a delicate green stem. Mari took the figure gently in her hands and held the beautiful glass rose with as much protective gentleness as she possibly could.  
“Chat…it’s lovely! You really didn’t have to!” Mari’s smile shined brighter than the stars that had begun to pinprick the quilted navy blue sky. Chat had spent his months away thinking of her, unaware that she’d been thinking of him too. When he’d seen this little glass rose in a display case in a jewellery store in New York, he’d thought of her. The delicate beauty reminded him of the dark haired girl standing before him, shining brighter than anything he’d ever seen.

“I’m glad you like it, mi princesa,” Chat’s smile widened, those dimples growing deeper and causing Marinette’s heart to skip a beat. Looking at photos of Adrien in New York gave her the same fluttering feeling as Chat’s smile did. “It appears that I’m going to have yo leave you now, sometimes a cat’s work is no play. I’ll see you tomorrow night?”

“Of course! I’ll be here, waiting, as always,” The stars shone in Marinette’s eyes as she promised to be here for him tomorrow. Since Ladybug had rejected him and his feelings toward Kagami had become slowly more confusing, his solace had been Marinette and he would be lying if he said that he hadn’t developed feelings for the quiet and unbreakable girl on this balcony. Chat took a mental picture of the constellation reflected in her eyes as he saluted her, climbed up onto the rail and jumped, using his staff to catapult himself to the next building. “Au revoir, Chaton!”  
“Au revoir, Marinette,” Clutching the rose gently to her chest, she watched him disappeared into the night. Abandoning her book on the daybed, Mari carefully placed the rose in one of her empty jewellery boxes, tucking the box into a drawer. Climbing beneath the light sheets of her bed, Tikki snoring faintly next to her ear, Marinette asked herself if it was possible to love two people. If she could love whoever was behind Chat Noir’s mask as much as she loved Adrien.


	2. Chapter 2

Adrien laid in his bed, staring at the tall ceiling above him. When he’d landed back in Paris hours ago, his mind had been whirling with jetlag, exhaustion and thoughts of Marinette. Being in New York with his father had been surreal, having Gabriel place his hand on Adrien’s shoulder and introduce him to the fashion elite were things Adrien hadn’t imagined even in his wildest dreams but he’d found himself missing Mari. His American friends had been amazing and interesting but he hadn’t been able to stop his mind from thinking about how much Mari would love them and how much they’d love her. Hearing her sweet, lilting voice over the phone while they were apart hadn’t done her justice and had made him miss her so much more.  
After a brief nap shortly after arriving home from Charles de Gaulle airport, Adrien had transformed into Chat Noir and begging his thundering heartbeat to slow as he slipped across the sunwarmed rooftops of inner city Paris. Lying in his bed, remembering the events of a few hours ago, a heavily dimpled smile cracked across Adrien’s face and he felt his heart rate pick up again. Her hair had been out when he arrived, the warm wind blew her dark fringe across her delicately scrunched face as she turned the page of her book. As Chat, he always felt more confident but there was something about Mari that made him feel like an absolute idiot. Ladybug had never made him feel this weird but the amount of times she’d rebuffed him had started to smooth out the overwhelming emotion he’d felt toward her.  
He wanted to show Mari who he was behind the mask, he knew that she’d accepted him as Adrien and he knew she’d accept him as Chat but since he’d befriended her, he’d become fully aware of the weight behind his superhero identity. Ladybug said that they couldn’t reveal who they were to each other for the sake of their loved ones, as much as Adrien wanted Mari to know every part of who he was he knew that he would never forgive himself if something happened to her. She was so delicate, so fragile, and Ladybug would have his head if anything happened to her, so he put her safety above his longing.  
Adrien rolled over and gazed at Plagg snoring loudly on the pillow beside him. Since Master Fu had given up the guardianship of the Miraculous Box, Adrien had wondered how long it would be before Ladybug would insist that they had to reveal who they were. Exhaustion started to tug at Adrien’s mind as his head swirled with so many questions, his eyelids started to droop and he felt his body dropping into the abyss of sleep. Picturing Marinette’s smile in his mind, Adrien fell into a deep, calming sleep.  
~~~~~~~~~  
Adrien sat at his desk, holding his phone in his hand and spinning slightly on the swivel chair. He’d missed Mari a lot while he was away and the distance between them had given him space to evaluate how he really felt about her. For the first few weeks, he’d called her his best friend at every possible chance, hoping to convince himself that she was nothing more than that but his mind had soon started screaming that he knew that wasn’t true. Adrien had their messages open on his phone and his thumbs were hovering over the keyboard as he mulled over what to say in his mind.  
He hated to admit that Nino knew he had feelings for Marinette, the other boy had made a pretty good shot in the dark about Adrien’s feelings after Adrien had commented on a picture of Alya and Mari that Alya had posted on her Instagram account. Adrien hadn’t been good at keeping his feelings secret from Nino and had admitted it immediately after Nino suggested it. He wondered if it would be a better idea to ask Nino to help him construct a message to Mari or if he should just wing it. Before his nervousness could get the better of him, his computer pinged, indicating that he had a message.  
Putting his phone down, Adrien clicked the message open with his wireless mouse and was greeted with a picture of a glorious red cheongsam dress with silver and gold lotus blossoms sewn into it. Checking the sending address he grinned seeing Kagami’s name with the subject of ‘WOULD MARI WEAR THIS I CAN’T GET AHOLD OF ALYA’. Kagami explained under the picture that she’d shown her cousin a picture of Mari and her cousin had pulled out this beautiful custom made cheongsam. The cheongsam was not traditional Japanese dress but her cousins fiancé was Singaporean and had it made for her when they first met, she’d long since outgrown it and knew that Kagami wouldn’t be caught dead in it so she was more than happy for her little cousin to gift it to her friend.  
Typing a quick response, Adrien assured Kagami that Mari would love it and then returned to blankly looking at Mari’s name at the top of their message bank. Three dots suddenly popped up, Marinette was sending him a message. With his heart in his throat, Adrien waited for the message to send but the three dots dropped away seconds later and didn’t return. Sighing, he opted to message Nino.  
Nino was ecstatic that Adrien was home from New York and insisted that they meet up. Adrien had missed Nino as much as Nino had apparently missed him so he agreed immediately and started checking cinema times so the two boys could catch a movie. Nino soon asked if he could bring Alya and if Alya could bring Marinette. His heart leapt into his throat again and hammered at a steady beat as he giddily responded. Nino was doing his work for him.  
~~~~~~~~  
Tikki sat on a stack of sketchbooks as Mari told her about Chat’s visit last night. The kwami’s fin-like hands were covering her mouth as she released tinkling giggles. Mari was pacing, untangling her hair from the hasty braid she’d thrown it into last night before falling into an uneasy sleep. The soft waves of her dark hair framed her heart shaped face as her blue doe eyes met the large ones of her magical companion. With little hesitation, Mari had explained to Tikki all the strange feelings that plagued her when it came to Chat. She felt that she was betraying Adrien for even considering having a crush on Chat but talking to Chat was easier than talking to Adrien and that didn’t make her feel any less guilty. Tikki had been listening to Marinette’s rambling all summer long, when Chat had disappeared at the start Mari had been furious with him and spent hours cursing his name but then she started to miss him and Tikki knew better than to point out to her friend that she was gravitating toward the balcony, almost as if she was looking for a certain golden haired boy in skintight leather.  
When Adrien had returned from New York yesterday morning, Plagg had slipped away and apprehended Tikki. The Cat Kwami had a weird way of sensing where the Ladybug kwami was of he had need of her but Tikki had never really acclimatised to his tendency to turn up completely unannounced. Tikki knew that Adrien was Chat Noir and Plagg knew that Marinette was Ladybug, so Plagg had decided to be selfless for the first time in his life and let Tikki know that Adrien was back, to expect a visit from a certain kitty cat pretty soon.  
Adrien confided in Plagg as much as Mari confided in Tikki so Plagg had told Tikki about Adrien’s feelings when he’d first begrudgingly noticed them. Not that Tikki was going to admit that to Marinette, it was something for Marinette to learn on her own.

Clutching her phone in her hand, Mari feverishly responded to a text message before looking at Tikki and jumping so high she nearly hit the roof.  
“Adrien invited Nino, who invited Alya, who invited me to see a movie!” Marinette’s eyes were as wide as saucers as she spun to face her dresser and pick through the clothes inside for something she deemed cute enough for a movie with Adrien. The knowing twinkle in Tikki’s eyes went unnoticed as Marinette began to pull shirts and pants and dresses from the cupboard anxiously.  
On opposite sides of Paris, Plagg and Tikki watched their respective owners slowly become more nervous and excited to see each other for the first time in months. After Adrien’s limousine arrived outside, Marinette quickly grabbed the delicate glass rose Chat had given her and slipped it into her handbag with Tikki before bounding down the stairs, kissing her mother and father goodbye, and sliding into the back seat of the car beside a hysterically laughing Alya.  
Adrien smiled at Mari from the seat opposite her and she felt her cheeks heat. She smoothed the creaseless skirt she was wearing down to allow her to hide her blush.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said I was gonna upload all of the chapters I've already written at once


	3. Chapter 3

Marinette and Adrien walked side by side into the foyer of the cinema. Mari’s cheeks were still flushed with red, making the pale smattering of freckles across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose glow like constellations in twilight. Adrien kept sneaking looks at her as they walked, she was so animated as she spoke to Alya, her hands fluttering as she explained something Adrien had long since forgotten about. Her hair was pulled back into her signature pigtails, the midnight strands had grown considerably longer since he’d last seen her in the daylight. Even haloed by the moon, Adrien hadn’t been able to see all the changes both subtle and not that had become so evident in Marinette. He’d scarcely been able to talk to her before; her shyness and the never ending hive of people buzzing around him meant that she became overwhelmed quickly and fled. But she was so much more confident than she used to be, her smile was so much brighter and more open, making her look so much more angelic than she already was.

“What do you think, Adrien?” Mari’s voice cut through his musings. Shaking his head slightly, he met her beautiful blue eyes with an air of confusion. Her smile faltered slightly, the corners of her lips unable to decide if they wanted to keep her face positive or slide into a negative mask. 

“He wasn’t listening, Mari, don’t take it to heart,” Nino laughed, coming around Adrien’s side and placing his hand on his best friend’s shoulder. “How about you girls go pick a movie and we’ll hang here and wait for you?”

“I thought you guys had already chosen a movie?” Marinette’s forehead wrinkled beneath her wispy fringe and the corners of her moth dimpled with confusion.

“We hadn’t, it was just an excuse not to check online for what was showing,” Alya rubbed the back of her neck with an uncomfortable chuckle before grabbing Mari’s arm and dragging her toward the ticket counter.

Nino rounded on Adrien, checking that the girls were out of earshot swiftly before continuing. “You got distracted by her, didn’t you?” Nino’s voice took on a sing-song tone as he teased Adrien. Adrien felt a blush rising in his own cheeks, rolling up his neck in strange waves, making the hair at the base of his neck tingle.

“Uh...is it that obvious?” Adrien hung his head and looked at his feet.

“Well, to me, your bestest bud in the whole world, it’s so obvious, man. You’re like a preschooler with a crush,” Adrien raised his head and held in a laugh at the look on Nino’s face. The other boy had pushed his bottom lip out to an extreme level and was making an expression with his eyes that Adrien could only describe as ‘gooey puppy dog eyes’. “But she definitely didn’t notice, man, so I think that you’re all good in keeping this lil’ crush a secret.”

“You don’t think she noticed?” Looking over at the girls at the ticket counter, Adrien’s heart skipped a beat. The fluorescent lights of the foyer were catching the dark highlights of Mari’s hair as she tipped her head back to look at the digital screen showing all the movies on offer today, he could almost hear her voice as she turned to Alya and suggested something. The redhaired girl bumped Mari with her shoulder and whispered something to her, sending her into a fit of giggles.

“Marinette exists in her own world, man, sometimes she...misses things, but if you keep up making lovey eyes at her, she might catch on before you have a chance to tell her,” Nino was looking at Alya as he shrugged toward Adrien. Alya had wrapped her arm around Marinette’s shoulders and was pointing to something on the screen, both appeared to finally agree on something as they walked up to the clerk. “Mari didn’t realise that Alya and I were dating until Al and I had been together for six months, man. She’s a smart girl, a wonderful girl, but perceptive she tends not to be.”

Adrien nodded his agreement and hoped that she wouldn’t decide that today was the day to be more perceptive. The girls began walking back over to them, tickets held in one of Marinette’s hands as the other one swung, clutching Alya’s, between her and the other girl. 

“Did ya pick a good movie? No chick flicks, I hope,” Nino put his arm out and Alya walked into it, letting him wrap her into a one armed hug as she slipped her arm around his waist. 

“You love chick flicks, Nino, don’t lie,” Alya bumped her shoulder up into Nino’s armpit as he let out a loud laugh. “You made me watch the notebook! You turned off Doctor Strange because it was ‘too scary’ and put the notebook on!”

“Alright, alright, I’m not gonna lie to ya, Al,” Alya smiled like a cat who had just gotten the cream it had been begging for and began to lead the group toward the cinema. Walking side by side, Mari and Adrien followed them, both of them felt a heat rising in their necks as they avoided eye contact with each other and anyone else. Their hands were so close to each other that Adrien had to stop himself from grabbing her hand and holding it. His pinky finger rubbed hers for a split second and sent a jolt up his arm. Unaware, Marinette felt the same jolt and immediately crossed her arms across her stomach; she was still unsure if Adrien knew of her crush on him so she chocked the small touch up to coincidence. 

“So...how have your holidays been, Mari?” Adrien slid his hands into his pockets, he kept the disappointment from his voice about Mari crossing her arms as he spoke.

“Um...they were good…,” She shot him a small, slightly embarrassed smile. “I hung out with Alya and Nino a lot...how was New York. I mean, I know how New York was, we spoke about it a lot, but...was it good spending time with your dad?”

“It was great spending time with him. Since Maman died he hasn’t been the same and had really thrown himself into his work. I know it wasn’t my fault but Nathalie told me about grief and how different people cope with it so I guessed that Dad has just been healing differently. Everyone has always said that I look a lot like Maman, so I can understand why he would have had trouble spending a lot of time with me,” Marinette didn’t exactly understand. She hadn’t lost anyone like Adrien had lost his mother and she’d always been lucky to have parents who would drop everything to spend time with her; she tried to empathise as she heard the slight quaver in his voice. The thought of grief and healing brought her back to the thoughts she’d had the other night about Hawkmoth. 

Adrien couldn’t possibly be Hawkmoth but it made Marinette wonder if the supervillain could possibly be someone like Adrien who had lost one parent after losing another and just wanted that time back. The way Adrien spoke about grief and how his father dealt with it didn’t seem like something a power-hungry villain would do, even in their civilian form. 

“Y’know, I’ve missed spending time with him and I’m thankful for the time I’ve gotten but I wish we hadn’t lost her,” Even as Adrien whispered those solemn words, Marinette knew, deep in her heart, that the neglected boy walking beside her wouldn’t have it in him to tear the rest of the world apart for a parent he barely knew. “He’s my dad and I’ll always love him, when he’s reached the end of his grieving process I just know that he’ll make up for the lost time.”

“I’m sure he will, Adrien, even if he doesn’t show it often I know that he loves you, and that he loves you enough for both himself and your mother,” Mari placed a gentle hand on Adrien’s bicep with a sincere smile. “And, even if she isn’t your mother, Nathalie loves you too. She’d be so proud of you, Adrien, just like your dad and Nathalie already are.

Adrien and Marinette walked down the aisle into their seats behind Nino and Alya. Nino was on Alya’s right and Marinette was on Alya’s left, leaving Adrien to sit on Marinette’s left. Nino opened up his backpack and pulled out a couple of packets of lollies and chocolate as well as some cups and a bottle of iced tea.

“Why iced tea, Nino? You’ve been drinking soft drink religiously for the last few weeks,” Marinette accepted the cup Nino had poured and handed to her before she carefully passed it onto Adrien, accepting the next cup passed by Alya. 

“I told him that he could die of a heart attack if he kept drinking so much so I’ve put him on to tea and this is one of the few iced tea brands he doesn’t argue with me about drinking,” Nino took a sip of the iced tea with a grin as Alya rolled her eyes with a silly smile. 

“I’ve been telling him to cut down on his caffeine intake for months and he only listens when you say it?” Adrien feigned a look of betrayal, his hand pressed over his heart with his mouth dramatically agape. Marinette let a laugh out through her nose, trying not to send the iced tea she’d just taken a sip of spurting out her nostrils. Alya patted Mari gently on the back as the dark haired girl began to choke slightly.

“You know I love you, boo,” Nino reached his hand out toward Adrien behind the two girls backs, Adrien took the other boy’s hand, mimicking the face of a newly engaged woman from a Victorian era movie. “But you’re not a gorgeous redhead with a rockin’ bod and my balls in a nutcracker.”

Alya’s laugh echoed through the slowly filling cinema as Mari began to choke, yet again. A couple of the new people walking into the cinema shot them some very strange looks; a hysterically laughing girl, a choking girl, and two boys holding hands over said girls didn’t look like something they’d expect to see in the audience of a movie. The movie itself was a different story.

Adrien let go of Nino’s hand and patted Mari on the back as the lights in the cinema began to dim and the curtains framing the screen slid away to reveal a larger screen than they had entered to. Once all the lights were off, Mari’s coughing subdued and her breathing returned to normal, the film began to roll on the projector screen before them as classical music filtered through the speakers surrounding them. Marinette had placed her arm on the armrest between her and Adrien, her long fingers tapped along to the melody of the music and her head swayed slightly from side to side with the harmony. He was so distracted by seeing her careful fingers matching the piano chords that the rest of the world slipped away and the room was reduced to him, Marinette and her delicate fingers flowing like water between them.

She’d sat at his piano with him once and listened to him play. It had felt so different then. Adrien hadn’t been aware of the feelings he had for her and having Marinette beside him as he poured the music from his wounded heart into the piano hadn’t felt so intimate. She had been his best friend, a calming and steady presence in his life, and nothing more. But here, in this cinema, surrounded by people, they could have been in the middle of a stampede and it would have felt achingly intimate. Adrien wanted to take her hand and teach her the chords of his favourite song on the piano, he wanted to listen to the music they could make together and know that it wasn’t coming from a wounded heart anymore but a steadily healing one, a heart finally ready to look beyond Ladybug and her dismissal of him as well as the parental influence he’d lacked for so long from his only living biological parent. 

Adrien’s eyes flicked upward and caught the profile of Mari’s face. The screen was illuminated in her eyes, Adrien could almost see the cogs turning in her mind as she processed the story and began to tell one of her own in the beautiful tapestry she called her head. Absentmindedly, Marinette reached up to a loose lock of her hair and tucked it gently behind her ear, the dark strands seemed to absorb the flickering from the screen. For the first time in his life, Adrien found himself inspecting her earrings. They looked strangely familiar but Adrien couldn’t put his finger on why; if his mind hadn’t been so full of thoughts surrounding the slight wave of her hair, the soft plumpness of her lips, the thick curls of her lashes, then maybe he would have been able to dredge up the memory of where he’d seen them before.

~~~~~~~

Mari felt his eyes on the side of her face before he turned away and focused on the movie playing above them. She felt so much more comfortable beside him now than she had before summer had come; she couldn’t place why or what had changed but she was grateful not to be a dorky, blubbering mess in front of him anymore. In the back of her mind, Marinette tucked away the memory of this moment; how it felt to sit beside him in almost complete silence and just exist in his presence. She hoped that she could relive this moment with him again one day, just the two of them though, maybe with their hands clutched together on the armrest between them.

She held in a secret, joyful smile but knew that the slight movements in her lips meant that she hadn’t done as good a job as she thought.

~~~~~~~  
After the movie, the friends went and got ice cream together and walked down the Champs-Elysees until they reached a nice, sunny spot and sat on a bench looking out over the park and the Fontaine de la Grille du Coq. The days were long but the time they’d spent together felt short, Adrien had his chauffeur drop Marinette home first, then Alya, leaving Adrien and Nino in the back seat of the limousine together.

“So, did ya have fun?” Nino elbowed Adrien in the ribs.

“Yeah, I missed you guys while I was away,” Adrien pressed a button that closed the partition between the back seat and the driver in the front.

“Missed Mari, you mean?” Adrien glared at the smirk on Nino’s face in the shiny, black partition now close before them.

“Shut up,”

“You know it’s true!” The car started to pull to a stop and the boys heard the driver’s door open, then close. “Well, looks like that’s my cue. Adios, amigo.”

“Adios,” Adrien and Nino bumped fists as the door on Nino’s side opened and the Gorilla waited patiently for him to get out. Nino slid along the seat and climbed out of the car, saluting Adrien a joking goodbye, the Gorilla closed the door and left Adrien, all alone, in the back of the car. Resting his head on the back of the seat as the car slowly began to roll back into motion and race toward the Agreste mansion.

The design of Marinette’s earrings was still puzzling him, out of the three piercings she had in her ear, the one furthest down on her lobe had caught his eye. The tiny ladybug shaped stud in the upper cartilage of her ear and the small golden hoop next to the studs that had confused him were new and foreign. He hadn’t paid attention much to the piercings punched through her ear but he had paid enough to know that she only had one in each ear when he’d seen her last. He hadn’t noticed them when he’d visited her as Chat either, but her hair had been out then. 

Picturing the earrings in his mind’s eye, Adrien didn’t gloss over a single detail as he assessed what he remembered. They seemed so unassuming, a glinting black-brown with tiny, single coloured, matte circles on them, almost like the little black dots on the body of the ladybug stud in her cartilage. Adrien was still exhausted from the trip home from New York but he tucked the analysis he’d gone through into a pocket of his mind to come back to later.

~~~~~~~~

Mari was leaning on the railing of her balcony, her hair loose around her shoulders again. The long, midnight strands tickled her bare shoulders with feathery softness; she’d let it grow longer than she wanted to over the holidays, she’d been meaning to cut it for days now but just hadn’t gotten around to it. She’d swapped her pyjama shirt from last night out for a loose, spaghetti strap singlet, Alya had bought them both a matching set of pyjamas years ago and while Ayla had outgrown them in height and breadth, Marinette had not and she still loved the pyjama set as much as the day Alya had presented them to her. The breeze caused the legs of her three-quarter length pants to rub against her legs and send goosebumps prickling across her skin. Her feet were bare on the concrete of the balcony, but she wasn’t cold. Spending time with Adrien and Alya and Nino today had left her heart warmer than black plastic in the height of summer, the heat of the day that was still branded into the floor helped keep her warm too.

Footsteps thudded behind her but she didn’t turn to see who had joined her on the balcony. Her mother or father would’ve announced their presence as they came through the trapdoor up to her room and she knew that their footfalls wouldn’t have been as heavy as those of the visitor she was expecting tonight.

“You are just as beautiful as the sun setting before you, purr-incess,” Chat Noir leaned beside Marinette on the railing, the wind ruffled his golden hair and separated the delicately curling strands as they blew across his forehead. Mari rolled her eyes.

“It’s good to see you too, Kitty cat,” Mari nudged his elbow with hers, though she held both her elbows in her hands. Almost effectively crossing them but not as severe as fully crossing them might have been taken. “Did you have a good day, Chaton?”

The way Marinette said ‘Chaton’ suddenly sent a deep shock of deja vu thundering through Adrien’s body. The lilt of her voice and the playfulness in her tone was so...so...Ladybug. When Ladybug had first called him Chaton she’d sounded just how Mari did now; so joyful and sweet and carefree, different to the Ladybug he’d patrolled with before he’d gone away. Ladybug had been stressed and overwhelmed, that much had shown in the brittleness of her demeanor when they’d last spoken.

“Chaton?” Marinette’s beautiful, big blue eyes met Adrien’s with concern. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong, princesa, I was merely lost in a thought for a moment,” Adrien gave Mari an assuring smile that had her pressing her lips together in mild concern before returning to their full cupid’s bow shape. “I had a wonderful day but I’m not sure if Mi’lady would be overly happy with me spilling the beans and juicy details.”

He wanted to drop hints now. His gut told him that, if what Nino had said to him earlier today about Marinette’s perceptiveness (or lack thereof) was true, she might give away how she knew Ladybug without saying it outright. The amount of time Adrien had spent alone meant that he had become something of an expert in wheedling information out of people without them needing to be blunt, when it came to emotions though he’d never been good at deciphering those.

“Why would Ladybug be unhappy if you told me about your day?” The wind blew Mari’s fringe over her face and obscured her vision, with careful fingers, Chat swept the strands back behind her ear. The hard plastic claws on the tips of his fingers grazed the soft skin of her cheek with gentle precision, he didn’t want to hurt her or mark her, he just wanted to touch her but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to place his uncovered palm on her cheek. Not now anyway.

“Well, she’s your friend, and I know that Mi’lady cares very deeply for her friends, so much so that she and I don’t know who each other outside our masks so we don’t accidentally put our families and friends at risk. If I give away too much, you could be put at risk,” Mari’s head cocked to the side slightly at his words.

“I understand her worry about me, if I was a superhero like her, I’d want to keep my loved ones as safe as I possibly could,” She turned her face away from him and looked back out over the city. His eyes snagged on the round stud in the lobe of her ear again, the light allowed him to inspect them better. The shiny surface of the stud between the matte black dots had an almost red sheen to them. That red sheen looked like it could be so much more vibrant if the earrings were given some attention with some jewellery cleaner.

“Then you’ll have to take my word on how good my day was,” Adrien let some classic Chat Noir mirth seep into his voice as he nudged Mari back.

“I have to admit that I’m curious as to who you are behind that pretty black mask and interesting green contact lenses,” Adrien let out a rich laugh. That was his Marinette, curious but careful. She had more curiosity in her pinky fingernail than Adrien had in his entire body but she was more careful about it than he was, if she wanted to poke around in things she tended not to get herself into deep trouble.

“Of course you are, princesa, I wouldn’t expect anything less from the best friend of Alya Cesaire,”

“How do you know Alya?” Marinette faced him fully again, taking her arms off the railing and leaning against it with her hip.

“Does anyone not know the world’s first and best Ladyblogger?”

“Of course, you’d know about her from the Ladyblog,” A soft laugh escaped Marinette’s lips, almost sending Chat’s heart beating out of his chest. “I didn’t expect that you’d follow a blog about you and Ladybug.”

“Well, I can’t possibly follow a blog about you, can I, princess?” The smile on Mari’s face as Chat said those words was brighter than anything he’d ever seen in his life. To say that the sun dimmed when her smile appeared was far too much of an understatement; the sun wouldn’t need to shine ever again if Marinette never stopped smiling. “Or is there one that I’m not aware of?”

“You flatter me, Kitty, but I’m not that interesting, I wouldn’t have anything to post on a blog solely dedicated to me,”

“I beg to differ! You could tell the world about our chats and they’d still be the least interesting part of your life,”

“I wonder what you actually think I do in my daily life, Chaton,” Mari stuck her tongue out at Chat and giggled. “I think you are making me sound like I do so much more than I actually do.”

“An amazing aspiring fashion designer with designs to rival Gabriel Agreste himself,” Marinette blushed and ducked her head. “A sweet, kind and wonderful friend with boundless love and advice to give. I couldn’t imagine someone I’d want to stalk online more.”

“Oi!’ Mari whacked him in the ribs with her elbow at that comment. “Creepy Chaton.”

“Aww, you love my company, princess, don’t deny it! And I’m sure that you’re very flattered that I, the great Chat Noir, would go out of my way to stalk you online,”

“Think whatever you want, Kitty Cat, I’ll neither confirm nor deny your suggestion,”

“By neither confirming nor denying my suggestion, you’ve inadvertently confirmed it,” Marinette shook her head with a laugh and pulled Chat to sit beside her on the large, round daybed she’d been lounging in last time he visited her.

Chat crossed his legs beneath him on the daybed and fiddled with the end of his tail, curling and uncurling it around his baton as he and Mari sat in comfortable silence.

“I did miss you, you know,” Chat stopped playing with his tail and baton, meeting Mari’s eyes in the now completely dimmed light of day.

“Miss me when? When I was gone today?” 

“No! Not today, Chat! When you went wherever it was you went, I missed you a lot and Ti-,” Mari stopped herself. “Timena, a friend I made online who lives in New Zealand, said that I should tell you.”

Adrien had caught Marinette’s pause before she said ‘Timena’. He’d met the Ladybug Kawmi when he and Ladybug had fought Reflekta. Plagg hadn’t been unable to find him and Tikki hadn’t been able to find Ladybug so they’d swapped Kwami’s for the battle and discreetly swapped back, without seeing each other, after it was over. The pause after she said the first syllable added yet another layer of suspicion to the growing in his mind.

“Timena sounds like a smart guy,” Chat shot Mari a dimpled smirk.

“Timena is a girl, or she was last time I asked her, so I’ll trust her preferred pronouns over your assumed ones,” The sarcasm in Marinette’s voice was thicker than a concrete slab.

“You wound me, princesa,” Chat placed a hand over his heart and pouted at Mari, the pupils of his jade green eyes expanding in an almost comical way as they reflected the twinkling pinpricks in the sky behind her.

“Oh, your poor pride,” Chat ran his hand through his hair, brushing against the cat ears perched on his head as Mari teased him.

“I accept your apology,” Marinette stuck her tongue out at him. They sat in silence again for a little while, the sounds of Paris at night were so melodic to their ears. Snuggling down into the pillows, Mari asked Chat to tell her a story. It didn’t have to be about his life outside the mask, it didn’t even have to be true, but she wanted to listen to his voice. Hearing her ask him to speak to her, just speak and not talk, filled his stomach with butterflies. She liked listening to his voice, she enjoyed hearing him ramble; Adrien didn’t think he’d had a better compliment given to him in his entire life. As Chat spoke, telling a second hand story one of his friends from New York had shared with him, Marinette started to drift off to sleep, she moved around on the daybed and rested her head in Chat’s lap.   
She wasn’t sure why she’d so brazenly put her head in Chat’s lap but it felt right. He kept talking as she gazed up at the sky, her eyes blinking sleepily, reflecting the stars. Chat began to gently massage her scalp with his claws as he spoke, she let out a small groan, almost like a purr, that rattled around in his chest. He felt her breathing slow as she finally, fully drifted into a deep sleep, she looked so beautiful. He didn’t want to wake her up but he also didn’t want to move her off his lap, he was in heaven.

Continuing his story, Chat carefully moved Marinette so he could lift her up and carry her into her room. Holding her like a porcelain doll in his arms, he whispered the story to her as her head rested on his shoulder.

“Plagg, claws in,” Adrien whispered, the Cat Kwami came rocketing out of his ring. Plagg let out a loud yawn which caused Marinette to stir slightly in Adrien’s arms, he wasn’t scared of her waking up though. If she saw him holding her, she may think it only a dream but if she found it as real as it actually was when she woke, he didn’t care that she’d discover who he really was. He trusted Mari with his life, even if she didn’t know it. Ladybug might think her too fragile to know that Adrien Agreste was Chat Noir but something in him told him that Marinette knew who was behind Ladybug’s mask; this quietly strong girl wouldn’t go down without a fight if Hawkmoth came for her and tried to pry his identity from her. Mari hadn’t been akumatized yet and if she was strong enough to resist an Akuma, even with the crappy way Chloe treated her, Hawkmoth would have another thing coming.

Seeing the sleeping girl in Adrien’s arms, Plagg immediately shut his mouth and decided to keep his complaining for camembert until they got back to the Agreste Mansion. A small, red and black plush looking toy was curled on Marinette’s pillow as Adrien got closer to the bed. The small plush suddenly rolled over and blinked as Plagg floated over to Marinette’s desk and accidentally knocked an empty drink bottle off the side of it in his usual, disrespectful manner. Tikki’s huge eyes widened as she saw Adrien holding Marinette in front of her and Plagg, facedown, on Mari’s desk, snoring like the hum of a chainsaw. 

“A-adrien?” Tikki sleepily floated over to Adrien and floated in front of his face. “W-why’re you here?”

“I came to visit Mari...I didn’t expect you to be here,” The sight of Tikki had his heart thundering, his mind refused to accept what he’d been mulling over for a lot longer than the past few days. Marinette was Ladybug, Ladybug was Marinette. The girl that he’d loved for so long, that he’d worked beside and patrolled beside, was the same girl who brought him croissants at school in the morning because she knew he’d skipped breakfast, who had sat beside him in the movie today and who had assured him that his father loved him, was proud of him. Somehow, the thought of Mari keeping her identity as Ladybug a secret from him didn’t make him angry. He thought of how many times she’d told him that they couldn’t reveal who they were for the sake of their loved ones, and it only made the love he had for her grow stronger. Her parents, her grandparents, Alya, Alya’s family, Nino, Mylene, Ivan, Juleka, Luka, Rose, Alix, Max, Kim, they were all so important to her as Marinette, that of course she’d want to keep them safe from Hawkmoth as Ladybug. 

“You can’t tell her you know, Adrien,” Tikki warned, her tiny voice was shaking . “Since Master Fu gave up guardianship, she’s known that she has to reveal herself eventually but you have to give her time. Please let her tell you when she’s ready, Marinette has never wanted to keep this from you but she thought of the people she loved and how devastated she’d be if something happened to them and she didn’t want that to happen to you.”

“I won’t, Tikki,” Adrien balanced Marinette against himself as he pulled the covers of her bed back. “I understand that she needs time and I’ll give it to her, as both Adrien and Chat. She’s done so much for me, the least I can do is do this for her.”

“You love her, don’t you, Adrien?” Adrien gently laid Marinette down on her bed, Tikki floating worriedly beside him.

“I love her as Ladybug and I was developing feelings for her as Marinette, but now that I know that Marinette is Ladybug, I love both sides of her, she’s a very special person,” Marinette stirred slightly as Adrien carefully moved her pillow beneath her head and pulled her sheets up over her. “I couldn’t ask for a better Ladybug, Tikki, or a better Marinette.”

“Give her time,” Adrien pulled back from Mari and watched her roll slightly in her bed, pulling her sheets up around her chin with a soft sigh. “She…..she feels the same way about you, Adrien. But Marinette doesn’t know that it’s you behind Chat Noir’s mask so she’s conflicted; she knows how she feels about you but she doesn’t understand how she feels about Chat. Please, Adrien.”

“I promise you, Tikki, that I won’t tell her who I am until she’s ready. I would want her to do the same for me, if our roles were reversed,” Adrien tucked her hair back behind her ear and pressed a feather light-kiss to her temple. Marinette liked him too, but she’d only accepted him as Adrien. He knew that she’d accept him as Chat too, why wouldn’t she? “Sleep tight, Mari.”

“You should go, Adrien, before Plagg wakes up and starts pointing at his mouth,” With a smile on his lips and a lightness in his heart, Adrien nodded and called his Kwami back into the ring. Slipping out through the open doors to Marinette’s balcony, Adrien glanced at her sleeping form one more time and disappeared out into the night.


	4. Chapter 4

Marinette woke in her bed, tucked under the sheets with her dark hair splayed over her pillow like ink in water. She was groggy, her eyes still crusted with sleep and her mouth dry, but she felt strangely content, like something heavy had lifted over night that she hadn’t been aware of. Sitting up, Mari’s fringe fell over the face and she felt a warm tingle on her temple as she pushed the hair behind her ear. She tried to remember how she’d gotten to bed last night but her memory stopped with an image of Chat Noir’s face looking down at her as she laid in his lap. His green eyes had widened in the darkness and his golden hair was tousled from running his clawed hands through it. She remembered him scratching her scalp gently too, she ran her fingers through her hair with a smile.

Looking around the room, Mari’s eyes scanned for Tikki. Normally, the Kwami would’ve been curled beside Marinette’s head when she woke up but she hadn’t been this morning. Walking to the still open doors of her balcony, Mari looked out and saw Tikki sitting in the middle of her daybed, fins crossed in her lap with her eyes downcast.

“Tikki?” Mari walked over to the daybed and sat down gently next to Tikki, the Kawmi’s head turned and her luminous eyes lit up. “Are you alright?’

“I’m alright, Marinette,” Tikki floated up to Mari’s face and nuzzled her cheek, her antennae smoothing back as she did so.

“Promise?”

“Promise,” Marinette took Tikki in her hands and pressed a kiss to the creature’s head as Tikki spoke.

~~~~~~~~~  
The rest of the summer passed quickly. Marinette kept up patrols as Ladybug, Chat joined her occasionally but she found him looking into the distance with a strange, almost pained, look on his face. She made sure to steer clear of her parent’s bakery when they patrolled, not wanting him to duck onto her balcony and realise that she wasn’t there. As Mari’s stress grew regarding Chat discovering her identity, she began calling Rena Rouge or Carapace to patrol with them.

During the days, Adrien spent more and more time with Mari, Alya and Nino. When Luka, Juleka and Rose returned, their group grew bigger. Chloe appeared from nowhere and insisted on joining them, glued to Adrien near constantly. He hadn’t snapped at Chloe’s disrespect of his personal space yet, but he was continually finding himself seconds away from tearing his arm from the blonde’s grip. Marinette, as always, gravitated toward him and he appeared to be putting more effort into speaking to her than he had previously. Mari’s feelings were still confused surrounding Chat and Adrien, both of them were two ends of a spectrum she hadn’t seen just yet, so she fluctuated between a stuttering mess and and the most confident person she’d ever been in her life without the Ladybug mask hiding her face.

The first day of school rolled around too quickly, taking Marinette and her friends by complete surprise. A new school year had dawned and beckoned in yet another few hectic months juggling every aspect of her life. There hadn’t been any akuma attacks since everyone had started coming home, the thought of why had been lingering in the back of Mari’s mind during every patrol, every hangout and every text conversation in the lead up to school. Could Hawkmoth be one of her friends parents? Was he a student at their school? Could he even be one of her friends?

Mari’s musings over who he could be had stolen many hours of sleep from her, more than Chat’s visits ever had, but she’d found herself unable to mention them to even Tikki, let alone Chat.

Backpack slung over her shoulder, Mari let out a nervous breath as she stepped onto school grounds. Even though she’d been with the students here since she had started school, a new year was always daunting and the nerves that sparked throughout her body never dimmed. Her hair was pulled into two small space buns on top of her head with small ribbons tied prettily around them, she’d loved the hairstyle when she had become Multimouse and she couldn’t think of a better way to present herself on the first day back at school.

The courtyard was full of chatter, those who hadn’t seen each other since returning home sharing stories and presents. Seeing all her classmates reconnecting washed away the nervous energy that had her bouncing on the balls of her feet. Walking a few more steps, Marinette heard her name ring out through the courtyard, the almost accentless French of Kagami Tsurugi a welcome sound to her ears.

“Kagami! You’re back!” Marinette jogged over to her friend, who was standing with Adrien, Alya, Nino and Alix. It was a strange mix, Mari had to admit, but it wasn’t one she actively tried to avoid.

Kagami stood very still for a moment, her eyes meeting Marinette’s, before the Japanese girl took a step forward and stiffly embraced Mari. With a laugh, Mari wrapped her arms around her friend and felt Kagami’s stiffness melt away, gently rocking side to side, Mari squeezed Kagami slightly before pulling away.

“I missed you, Kagami!” Marinette’s head felt so much less full now that Kagami was back in the same time zone as her, and would likely be returning to her tried and true schedule. Talking to Kagami was different to talking to Alya but Marinette would never go as far as to pick who was her favourite to talk to. Comparing conversing with Kagami to conversing with Alya would be like comparing apples to oranges; they were both fruit and both very sweet but no way the same. Where Alya was all jokes and smooth edges, the aura of familiarity between them allowing their conversations to flow like a river, Kagami was facts and well researched advice. Both were welcome and Mari loved them dearly but they were so different and, for that, Marinette was thankful.

“I missed you too, Marinette,” Kagami gave a serene, genuine smile which Marinette returned enthusiastically. “Time zones can make speaking to friends quite hard, I discovered. I was almost unable to contact Adrien and I was very frustrated to not be able to contact you, Alix or Alya.”  
“She called me at 3 in the morning!” Alix’s spiky pink head poked into the conversation. The much shorter girl talking at an incredibly rapid rate. Alix and Kagami had hit it off about a month before the summer break, both girls being competitive to their very cores and equally good strategists, even if Alix had more energy in her body than she should possibly be able to contain.

“It wasn’t 3 o’clock in the morning in Tokyo,” Kagami’s smile grew wider. Being around Mari, Alya and Alix had relaxed her considerably but Kagami had a tendency to snap back into her rigid way of speaking and standing very quickly as soon as she thought of her mother. The careful joking was new but both Marinette and Adrien took it as a sign that Kagami trusted them.

“You’re the smart one, ‘Gami, you shoulda known the time differences,” Alix began skating around the group, weaving through everyone with practiced ease.

“I did know the time differences. Maybe I called you because I knew it would wake you up,” Kagami’s smile turned almost cat-like, a feline interest sparking in her eyes as she watched Alix literally skate circles around them.

“Oi! I’m meant to be the rude one!” 

“I’m very sorry, your majesty, allow me to make up for my dreadful comment,” Kagami swept a joking bow. “Please forgive me, Queen Alix! Oh, please, please, please!”

Alix skidded to a halt in front of Kagami and poked her tongue out at her.

“I have something for you, Kagami,” Marinette reached into her school bag and pulled out a small package wrapped in white tissue paper with a careful bow loosely tied around it. Kagami’s green-brown eyes lit up, catching the sunlight and shining like glistening honey, Mari handed her the present and watched her friend slowly unwrap it, careful not to tear the delicate paper or drop the yellow ribbon now completely free from it’s bow. “I made it myself.”

Kagami unfolded the kimono jacket inside and held it up, Mari’s handiwork glittering and fluttering like real birds in flight. The whole group, including Alix who usually paid very little attention to things such as this when it wasn’t her receiving the gift, watched as Kagami’s jaw fell open and tears of liquid silver shone in her eyes.

“It’s beautiful, Marinette,” A blink sent a silver limned tear over Kagami’s lower lid and down her pale golden cheeks. Kagami unbuttoned the white blazer she was wearing, a new iteration of the regular outfit she wore to school, and folded it perfectly, placing it on the bench next to Alya and Nino. She slipped her arms into the wide, flowy sleeves and let the beautifully, deftly painted coat fall to her mid-thigh. Unlike the common reds, whites, oranges and golds Mari had seen in lots of traditional Japanese clothing, the kimono jacket was a medium blue with stunning snow-capped mountains and beautiful coursing waterfalls, birds flew across the fabric, their wings moving gently as the garment did. The swirling water of the waterfalls appeared to cascade across the rocks Marinette had painstakingly painted with the smallest brush she’d ever used in her life. “I shall treasure it forever.”

Kagami even went as far as unfastening the red and black checkered tie tucked underneath the collar of her shirt and removing it, she appeared so much more relaxed in her tights and skirt with her slightly scuffed red sneakers all topped off with the kimono jacket that made Kagami feel like the Empress of Japan herself.

“You made that, Mari?” Adrien’s eyes were like saucers. The blinding green of his eyes almost fully eclipsed by his blown-wide pupils. 

“Y-yes,” A blush started to paint Marinette’s cheeks, brightening her freckles. “I made it all myself.”

“It’s incredible!” Alya stepped forward to run her fingers along the silver stitched lining on the sleeves of Kagami’s coat. “Why don’t you ever make something like this for me?”

“I’m working on something for you currently, Alya!” Marinette giggled, covering her mouth with her hands. Suddenly, a yellow blur came hurtling out of nowhere and launched at Adrien. With a squeal, Chloe effectively tackled Adrien to the ground and wrapped him in a bone crushing hug. Adrien hadn’t been paying attention, the brightness of Mari’s smile and the melody of her laugh had sent his mind into an unending error message. Even with Chloe constricting his breathe, Adrien was still breathing easier than he was when Marinette had walked over to the group a few moments ago.

“Aaaaaaaaadrikiiiins,” The piercing shrillness of Chloe’s voice did little of snap Adrien out of his Mari induced daze. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen Chloe recently and he guessed that he could pay attention to her later if it was really necessary. With some help from Alix, Alya peeled Chloe off Adrien and let Marinette pull him back to his feet. “Aren’t you excited to see me?”

“Uh, hey, Chloe,” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, his hand burning from Marinette grabbing it, a searing and pleasurable numbness surging up his arm and sending his heart into overdrive.

“I’m messing with you,” Chloe threw her head back into a laugh. Marinette frowned slightly, confused. “Come on, guys! Can’t someone change for a new school year?”

“I-I guess so,” Marinette’s lips pursed, her forehead wrinkling beneath her soft fringe. “As long as it lasts, Chloe. You’ve been quite awful to us in the past and the only times you’ve apologised for it have been after Adrien makes you.”

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see if it lasts, Marinette,” Chloe threw Marinette a quick, but not insincere, smile and walked back over to Sabrina who was shaking a snowglobe and watching the fake snow inside it settle around the figurine. 

“She’s never called me Marinette before,” Mari’s confused frown deepened, dimpling her still blush painted cheeks. “Not even when she hung out with us in the holidays.”

“She didn’t hang out with us that often, Mari, we didn’t ever really invite her,” Alya grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder, grabbing Nino’s hand. “I’m not generally one to encourage giving Chloe a chance but, as she said, it is a new school year. Maybe she’d actually turned over a new leaf.”

With a shrug, Kagami gave a single, solid nod. “It would be best not to underestimate her, especially this early. Let us see if she can sustain a positive behaviour toward us before we discard her,” Adrien gave a hum of approval with Kagami’s comment. Alix looked skeptical but the wary look on her face dropped quickly after realising that Kagami, ever the strategist, wouldn’t say something like this if she didn’t believe it. Nino looked at Alya who inclined her head toward him, Nino nodded his agreement. “Sometimes, people have the ability to change. We must not become a dam in the flowing stream of Chloe’s growth or we may never see the person she could become.”

Alya and Nino, still holding hands, looked at each other before excusing themselves and walking up the stairs toward their classroom. Alix checked her watch and reported that there were 10 minutes left before class started before zooming off to pick up her bag from across the courtyard.

“I have something for you too, Marinette, but I did not make it,” Kagami kneeled beside the bench she’d put her blazer on and pulled her school bag and a large, black box. “Adrien assured me that you would like it.”

Glancing at Adrien with another luminescent blush painting her cheeks, nose and chin, Mari took the box and opened it. Beneath a layer of tissue paper thinner than the one she’d wrapped Kagami’s coat in was a dress of the deepest red. Marinette recognised the garment as a cheongsam, the slightly stiff, high collar with pure golden lining giving away the styling of the traditional dress.

“A cheongsam,” Mari’s voice was barely more than a whisper. The fabric was pure silk and she was almost completely sure that the golden thread had actual gold twined into it. It was the most beautiful garment Marinette had ever touched in her entire life and she couldn’t believe that Kagami had given it to her. Mari didn’t take the the dress fully out of the box, not wanting to dirty it, but she knew that the rest of it was just as opulent and beautiful as the collar and upper part of the dress. “I didn’t think cheongsam were worn in Japan, they’re a traditional Chinese garment.”  
“My cousin, not the one who was getting married but she is engaged, had brought it with her to Japan. She wanted to give it to me but it is not something I would generally wear, I prefer more comfortable clothing, so I thought that you might like it,” A blush of her own started to rise up Kagami’s neck, her normally stoic demeanor faltering. “You’re a similar size to me so I had no doubt that it would fit you, if it does not I am sure that you would be able to accurately adjust it.”

“T….thank you so much, Kagami,” Mari placed the lid back on the box, put the box in Alya and Nino’s now vacant spot, and surged forward to hug Kagami. With no hesitation, Kagami wrapped her arms around Marinette and pressed her cheek into Mari’s shoulder. “It’s so beautiful. Did your cousin have it made in China?”

“She had it made in Singapore, that’s where she and her fiance live. He has Chinese heritage and they visit his family in China occasionally, he’s very well connected so they attend quite a few functions when they go over there. Their engagement was arranged but they learned to love each other and I’ll be attending their wedding next year,” Kagami and Marinette pulled away from each other, Adrien was standing off to the side behind them, forgotten. He didn’t feel forgotten though, he’d witnessed one of the most beautiful exchanges he’d ever seen in his life. Kagami was his closest friend, after Nino of course, and Marinette was the girl he loved; seeing them as close as they were made him happier than he thought he’d ever been in his life. Adrien didn’t have siblings and his cousin, Felix, didn’t visit often anymore, so Kagami and Nino were as close to siblings as he had. Kagami was also an only child, so Adrien felt closer and more in sync with her than he did with Nino but they were both his family considering that he didn’t have much of one at home.

The school bell tolled out across the courtyard, summoning the students to class. Kagami wasn’t going to be in Adrien and Marinette’s class as her mother had requested a specific curriculum for her that was to be taught in the Tsurugi’s native Japanese with a mixture of French, German, Italian, English, Spanish, Latin, and Mandarin. Mari had thought it sad at first that Kagami would be at school with them but unable to be in their class, she’d later learned that Luka had qualified for the same class. The discovery had surprised her immensely, Marinette hadn’t thought of Luka as an incredibly intelligent, multilingual student and she had felt very guilty in never expecting him to be anything more than a handsome guitarist. This special curriculum and class enforced by Kagami’s mother wasn’t limited to just Luka and Kagami but a few other students, both older and younger than Mari, with incredible intelligence and multilingual families.

With a small wave, Kagami walked to the other end of the courtyard and began to ascend the winding stairs, leaving Marinette and Adrien alone.

“We’d best get going or Madame Bustier is going to have our heads,” Adrien’s lips had fallen into a lopsided, dimpled grin that sent a pang of recognition through Mari’s body. She’d seen that smile before but her mind, still racing from the incredible gift Kagami had presented her and the proximity to Adrien, couldn’t remember where to process the sudden, confusing recognition.  
“Yeah,” Mari picked her bag up by one of the handles and slung it onto her back, careful not to disturb the small purse crossing her torso that housed Tikki and some macaroons for the Kwami in case she got hungry. They walked to the stairs together in an almost stifling silence, Marinette couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so awkward around Adrien, especially considering the amount of time they’d spent in each others presence during the summer break. At a loss for how to conduct herself, Mari decided to infuse some of the signature Chat Noir confidence that she loved into her demeanor. The thought of the cocky, halo haired boy sent heat up Mari’s neck, he’d put her to bed a couple of weeks ago. She’d fallen asleep in his lap, of all places, and he’d put her to bed! Tikki hadn’t mentioned seeing him and Chat hadn’t asked why she had the Ladybug Kwami at all during their late night talks on her balcony or the patrols she ran with him as Ladybug; she assured herself that this meant Chat and Tikki hadn’t seen each other. Neither of them would have any reason to lie to her, right? Or hide things?

“Ladies first,” Adrien swept his arm wide as they reached the stairs up to their classroom. With a small chuckle, Marinette swept him a joking curtsey and walked up the stairs in front of him. Her mind was still overwhelmed with thoughts of that night with Chat, she’d been mulling over it for weeks and the longer she focused on it, the more questions it raised. Had she drooled on him? Alya said that she drooled in her sleep, if she’d drooled on Chat that would’ve been so embarrassing and Chat would’ve been too polite to tell her afterwards unless she asked. Why didn’t she ask?! Mari’s brow creased as she watched her booted feet ascend the steps, little did she know, that right behind her, Adrien was enjoying the view.


	5. Chapter 5

Madame Bustier was not impressed with Marinette and Adrien when they finally arrived in class. She’d completed roll call 2 minutes prior, as they were still walking up the stairs, and now had to log back into the new, confusing online system to mark the two newcomers off as present. Ayla shot Marinette a sly wink from her seat on Nino’s desk and Mari felt an extreme embarrassment flare over her face.

“Sorry for keeping Marinette from coming up to class when the bell rang, Madame Bustier, I’d seen a garment she’d made for our friend, Kagami, and was asking if she could make one for me. I didn’t mean to make both of us late,” Adrien gave an angelic smile to the redheaded teacher who knew better than attempt to argue with Gabriel Agreste’s son. Even if Adrien hadn’t been the son of the man who almost literally held all of France in the palm of his hand, he hadn’t lied to her before so why should he start now. The main source of her annoyance was, of course, the new student sign in system. She hated it with a burning passion.

“That’s quite alright, Adrien,” Madame Bustier’s fingers tapped heavily against the keyboard of her laptop as she tried, for the fourth time that morning, to log into the website correctly. It kept insisting that her password was wrong but when she tried to change it, it told her that she couldn’t change the new password to the old one. “Marinette, your seat is at the back of the room this year, and you will be sitting next to Alya when she realises that tables aren’t for sitting on.”

The teacher, of course, was joking. Alya had asked permission before sitting on Nino’s desk as the class had watched Madame Bustier struggle with the login system. Max had tried to help but the minute they’d gotten into the program, the computer had frozen and then they discovered that the user interface was absolutely awful. Max vowed to make an easier site for Madame Bustier to use but it would take him maybe a week to research and a few more days to complete. If she could keep her sanity for that long, Madame Bustier might just add the teenager to her will.

“Adrien, you’ll be seated next to Lila,” Madame Bustier pointed at an empty desk beside the rather awful strawberry blonde girl as she tried to enter her password again. Lila gave Adrien a Cheshire smile, all too white teeth and hidden malice, Adrien felt a shiver run down his spine as he walked up the stairs and slid onto the bench beside her. Marinette walked up the stairs behind her, her cheeks still a raging crimson, she met Adrien’s eyes and allowed her lips to form a soundless ‘I’m sorry’ before she walked out of his peripheral vision and slid into her own seat. Alya joined her not a moment later.

“Hi, Adrien,” Lila dragged out every vowel of her greeting and batted her mascara caked lashes at him, sending flakes to congregate on her cheeks. “How was your holiday?”

“It was good,” Adrien gave a clipped response as he pulled his workbook and pencil case out of his bag, setting them on the desk. Pretending to stretch, Adrien’s eyes roamed the room and counted the number of rows between him and Marinette. Alya was whispering to Mari, her opal coloured eyes shining with mirth as whatever she said sent Mari into a fit of barely stifled giggles. With her index finger, Marinette pushed Alya’s glasses back up her nose, her other hand covering her mouth.

“Just good, didn’t you do anything? I heard you went to New York,” Lila’s voice oozed a sarrachine sweetness that made Adrien’s teeth ache. He hadn’t missed Lila over the holidays, he’d barely registered her existence when she commented on one of his social media posts or attempted to message him, he’d been busy of course but after finding out that Marinette was Ladybug he’d been preoccupied with his feelings for her and how he was going to ask her out.

“I did,” Adrien flipped his workbook open and marked the date at the top of the page, waiting for Madame Bustier to turn the projector on.

“What’s happened, Adrien? You seem so unhappy? Was it Marinette? Did she say something to you and make you lie to cover for her?” Lila placed her talon tipped hand on Adrien’s arm, her eyes swimming with false worry. The sharpened acrylic nails that adorned every one of her fingers were painted in a mocking buttercup yellow with small animal stickers on each of them. She’d chosen to make the acrylics as long as she possibly could and as sharp as the nail technician would allow, Lila knew exactly how her nails would come across to others in her class and having her hand on Adrien like this was staking her claim.

“No, I’m just trying to get focused for class. Why would Marinette ever do something to make me lie for her? Why would Marinette even need to lie?” Adrien swept his arm out from under Lila’s hand and rested it closer to the edge of his workbook, his elbows bracketed him in a way that he hoped would make her back off. It hadn’t been 10 minutes but Adrien’s tolerance for the meticulously fake strawberry blonde beside him was wearing ever thinner. 

“You obviously don’t know Dupain-Cheng very well, Adrien,” Lila turned away from him and folded her hands across the table in front of her. Madame Bustier cheered as the projector illuminated the board and displayed a powerpoint presentation on the topics they’d be covering that term.

~~~~~~~~~  
Gabriel Agreste stood beside his wife, Emilie’s, coffin with his hand resting gently on the slightly fogged glass. His heart felt heavy, it always did when he stood in this room, and he felt the overwhelming absence of her. A mocking echo of her laugh resounded in his ears, a dimmed and ghastly mimic of her smile burned into his retinas, the shadow sensation of her soft pale golden hair on his fingertips, she was so close but so far and no matter how much time he spent by her side, talking to her, she wouldn’t wake up until he combined the Ladybug and Cat miraculouses to wish her out of her deathlike sleep.

He told Emilie about the trip to New York he had taken with Adrien and how regretful he felt for missing so much of Adrien’s life. Gabriel hadn’t seen the man his son was becoming and his heart had felt weighed down with guilt ever since they returned from the United States; he’d missed so much of his son’s life and he would never be able to get those years back. Without him, Adrien had grown into a level-headed, moral, intelligent and passionate young man, it was more than Gabriel had hoped he’d become but he mourned not having a part in shaping him. A single solitary tear slid down the weathered cheek of the fashion mogul, soon wiped away by a silken handkerchief that had been crushed tightly in his hand.

Though Gabriel knew that what he was going was wrong, Nooroo had told him enough times, he wouldn’t stop until the light that had once shined so brightly from his wife returned and brought her with it. Nathalie had been enough to sate his needs over the past few years, his willing assistant taking over the maternal role left empty by Gabriel’s own mistake, but he knew that Emilie was the only woman he would ever love, regardless of what Nathalie felt for him and he felt, somewhat, in return for her. He’d suspected for a while that his assistant had been falling in love with him but the trip to New York had cemented that suspicion when Nathalie had accidentally referred to Gabriel and Adrien as ‘her family’. Admittedly, the sound of those words rolling off her tongue had brought a warmth to his soul that he hadn’t felt for too long, but he wouldn’t rest, he wouldn’t give in, until it was Emilie saying them.

Nooroo had tapped Gabriel into the emotional aura of Paris when they’d first bonded years ago, before Emilie had become comatose, and allowed him to scan the city looking for the strongest emotional aura to harness to draw Ladybug and Chat Noir out and take their miraculouses. When Emilie had been awake, Gabriel used this power to encourage good deeds to come of those he reached out to; allowing them the strength to lift buildings and save their trapped family members or ask their beloved to marry them. Since she’d gone, he’d only been able to connect to negative emotions of anger, sadness or jealousy, it made his villains stronger though, those negative emotions. Nothing could drive a person more than hate.

“I will wake you, my love, I will get the Ladybug and Cat miraculouses very soon and you shall return to me, to our son,” Gabriel wiped a smudge of perspiration off the glass above Emilie’s lips. “You may never forgive me, Emilie, for what I’ve done to bring you back but I need you. Adrien needs you. He must have his mother.”

From behind the doorway into Emilie’s coma room, Nathalie covered her mouth to stop a sob from escaping her lips. Her eyes watered as she felt Gabriel’s words sink into the fragile flesh of her heart, he didn’t know that she’d heard him and he wouldn’t know but it didn’t stop the pain that coursed through her veins. Nathalie had been more than a mother to Adrien, she’d almost single-handedly raised the boy while juggling Gabriel’s secret life, fashion career and general household logistics. She couldn’t remember when she’d fallen in love with him, it had happened so long ago and loving him was easier than breathing; Adrien may not be her son by blood but she loved him as her own, he was more her son than the son of the woman encased in glass only metres away. 

Half jogging, keeping her footfalls gentle as her heart raced, Nathalie fled from the warren hidden beneath the Agreste mansion and escaped to her office. Closing the door and locking it, Nathalie slumped against the heavy wood and slipped into a curled position, keeping her sobs silent, Nathalie let her tears flow and steeled herself. She was fully aware of Gabriel’s connection to emotional auras and she would never allow him to use her to wake Emilie up. Emilie had been her love once too, she had been with Emilie and been her girlfriend long before Gabriel had even been suggested as a friend to either of them. Gabriel had reminded her of Emilie and she loved both differently, but wholly, she would not be used for Gabriel’s game even if she loved Emilie as much as she loved him.

In her heart, Nathalie knew that Emilie would rather be comatose than live with the knowledge of what Gabriel had done to bring her back, the lives he’d ruined and the people he’d killed. Emilie wouldn’t forgive him for abandoning Adrien, her flesh and blood. Unbreakable walls rose around Nathalie’s heart, locking the love she held for Gabriel in a barren wasteland.

~~~~~~~~~~  
Kagami sat at a large desk by herself, 3 of the other 4 students had arrived and claimed their desks. The other 3 sat at a table together, ages varying between 12 and 17, and spoke under hushed tones, getting to know each other Kagami deduced.  
The final member of their 5 person strong class walked in the door a moment later, a large black guitar case slung over his left shoulder and a satchel bag held by the shoulder strap in his right hand. With a smile toward the teacher, the boy’s eyes scanned the room and landed on Kagami, sitting alone at her immaculately prepared workspace. His walk was as if he was gliding through water, so confident and self assured, as he strode to Kagami’s table and gently set his guitar case down.

“Would you like some company?” The boy inclined his head, sending his cobalt tipped fringe sliding across his forehead into his oceanic eyes. “You look like you could use some company.”

“You’re free to sit wherever you like, I have no issue with you sitting with me if you so choose as I would very much like to get to know one of my classmates,” Kagami’s tone was near monotonous, she was unsure whether to be mirthful and open with this boy or wary.

“Luka,” The boy extended his hand, which Kagami took and shook. “Luka Couffaine.”

“Kagami Tsurugi, I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr Couffaine,” Luka pulled a chair over from a empty nearby desk and faced it backwards to the table, sitting on it with his arms braced on the back of the chair. His bag was now resting beside his guitar case. “I think my friend, Marinette, may have mentioned you before.”

“Luka is fine, Kagami,” He gave a small chuckle and shook his head slightly, shaking his hair out of his eyes. “Yeah, Mari and my sister, Juleka, are pretty good friends, I met Mari through Jules.”

“You and her spoke whilst you were on holiday, if I remember correctly,” Kagami felt her stiff posture relax, the soft fabric of her kimono jacket soothing against her skin. 

“Yeah, we did, I had a crush on her for a while but it didn’t pan out so I’m more than happy to be one of her friends, she’d a pretty cool girl,” Luka gave a lopsided half-smile. Kagami felt a weird fluttering in her chest, it wasn’t a feeling or emotion she’d categorised but she did remember it as the same one she’d experienced when she saw Marinette smile for the first time. She’d never actively explored her sexuality, she hadn’t ever really had time, but Kagami understood that she was attracted to both men and women, though it depended on who they were for the attraction to develop toward an emotional attachment.

“I hold an attraction for Marinette too,” Kagami wasn’t a shy person, she’d never really had anyone ask before. She’d been attracted to Adrien, but Kagami understood that even someone who loved women and solely women would find Adrien attractive so it hadn’t developed. “She is very enamoured with Adrien Agreste though, so I would prefer her to be happy.”

“I feel the same way,” Luka fiddled with the leather bracelet on his wrist. “About wanting her to be happy, I mean.”

Kagami gave a single nod and allowed a small smile to form on her lips.

“Do you have a nickname, Kagami? I don’t have a problem with your full name but I tend to be a very lazy guy so I prefer to give my friends nicknames,” Luka rested his chin on his crossed arms.

“Alix calls me ‘Gami, but you can give me a nickname if you wish to,” Her expression softened as she looked at him. He was all gentle grace, calming energy, and boundless sweetness, he reminded her of Marinette in that way but she found Luka so much more entrancing.

“Hmmmmm,” Luka cocked his head, pressing his cheek against his arm and squishing the soft white flesh up against his high cheekbone. “Well, in traditional Japanese the name ‘Kagami’ means mirror.”

“Your understanding of Japanese is very good, Luka,” Kagami had to commend him on his translation of her name. Not many Western people could correctly translate simple Japanese, much less her quite unusual name.

“Well, it’s one of the reasons why I’m in this class,” That lopsided smile returned, squished underneath his cheek. “Your French is really good too.”

The two were silent for a moment, Luka in thought and Kagami as she catalogued the compliment he’d just paid her.

“I’ve got one!” Luka raised his head, his glittering eyes meeting Kagami’s. “Echo, I’m gonna call you Echo. To mirror a sound is to echo it, your name means mirror, and, viola, the image of strength before me becomes a resounding echo through history.”

“Thank you, Luka,” Kagami gave him a wide, genuine smile. “I like it very much.”

“Glad you do, Echo,” Luka’s voice was like thick, dark honey, sweet and intoxicating. Her heart skipped a beat and a rational part of her mind insisted that she’d just met the boy, that forming such an attachment to him now would be folly. It didn’t stop her eyes from scanning every inch of his beautiful face. 

“Ohayo, minasan,” The teacher called attention to himself at the front of the class in Japanese. Standing, Kagami gave him a bow and returned his greeting in her native tongue. The teacher gave her a pleased smile and looked around the room expectantly, the other table scrambled to their feet and gave hasty, poorly executed bows with half-hearted greetings. Then Luka gave his, just as eloquently as Kagami. With a satisfied smile, the teacher began the lesson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lila's hair is strawberry blonde because the bitch went through a mid-life crisis and tried to make herself look like Chloe.


	6. Chapter 6

Gabriel could feel Nathalie’s disdain toward him radiating off her. He was unsure of what he’d done to turn her against him but he didn’t have much reason to care, she was a means to an end and a way of bringing Emilie back to him. She didn’t have to like him anymore, she just had to obey his orders.

~~~~~~~

School had been active for a month. There hadn’t been a single akuma attack just yet, Marinette didn’t exactly understand the full extent of Hawkmoth’s powers but Master Fu had explained that he chose his victims by judging the strength of their emotions. Mari couldn’t grasp how that worked. Chat hadn’t come to see her since school had started and she could feel a deep, jittery worry sludging through her veins. He was on her mind near constantly, so much so that her anxiety around Adrien had almost completely diminished. 

Mari stood on her balcony with a light cardigan wrapped around her slim shoulders, if Chat didn’t appear in the next twenty or so minutes, she’d decided that she was going to head out on a patrol as Ladybug. Rena Rouge, Carapace, Chat Noir and Ladybug had formed a roster for patrolling so that it wasn’t a responsibility placed solely on Ladybug and Chat’s shoulders and everyone had the chance to get a full night’s sleep. Mari had been meaning to raise the idea of adding another to their slowly growing band, she’d taken the Dragon miraculous back off Kagami before Kagami had gone away. The Bee miraculous, Snake miraculous, Horse, Monkey and the others were all still in the Guardian Box. She wouldn’t mind adding Ryuko to the roster or Viperion, maybe both, but tonight wasn’t her night to patrol. It was Chat’s.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lila stood in front of the dimly lit washbasin in her ensuite, looking at herself in the grimy mirror above it. All the lies she’d told the students at school about her mother always ran with an undercurrent of truth. Yes, her mother was absent, and yes, they hadn’t spent proper time together in years but it wasn’t because she was a super-spy or world-famous model, it was because of something far more sad.

Unwrapping the towel from around her head, Lila remembered the last time she’d seen her mother. The tanned skin of her mother’s face was stretched across the frame of her face, the meat of her cheeks created cliffs under her round cheekbones from the extent that it had withered away, once lively brown eyes now hollow and sunken, glassy and unseeing. The tangled, waist length strands of Lila’s hair came free from the towel and fell in damp clumps around her pyjama clad hips. Lila’s mother was a housemaid, a migrant one at that, who worked herself to the bone to keep Lila in school and clothed as best she could. The clothes on Lila’s back had been painstakingly hand-sewn by Lila herself to replicate the fashions she saw daily. Chloe Bourgeois didn’t know how lucky she was, her father was alive and her mother made time for her. She had money to throw around on stupid things like manicures she’d get redone in a different colour the very next day, while Lila didn’t even have enough spare to buy new bobby pins when she really needed them.

Brushing her hand through her limp, newly re-bleached hair, Lila sighed through her nose. Even Dupain-Cheng had it good. Her mother and father adored her, they always made time for her and never left her completely, utterly alone. A large chunk of Lila’s hair came off in her hand, the damp blonde ball tangled around her fingers caused a sob to rise in her throat. The tips of her butter yellow acrylic fingernails shone within the hairball, the manicure that she’d stolen money to get. The manicure that now held knotted bundles of her once magnificent brunette mane. Lila felt a hairy clump whisper against the skin of her back as she moved her head slightly, the weight of her drying hair was now pulling the dead, chemically destroyed roots directly out of her scalp.

She’d worked herself to the bone over the holidays to afford the hair bleach, the make up, jewellery, even her criminally paid for manicure. The family her mother worked for rarely let her go home and her wage scarcely covered their rent, not to mention school, so Lila worked when she could, as much as she could. She cleaned, she cooked, she sewed things, all so she could afford groceries, when she’d come up short of her calculations on how much she’d need to spend on her new appearance, she’d stolen cash from the till at the fast food restaurant she took the graveyard shift at. The manager had been none the wiser as Lila swiped petty change and other employee’s tips as well as bills and coins from the register.

Tears stinging her eyes as she tied what remained of her once thick, soft, glistening hair into a straggly, thin plait and repeated the mantra she told herself daily.

“When you marry Adrien Agreste, you will never go hungry again, you will be the daughter Gabriel Agreste never had, and you will make Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Chloe Bourgeois, Alya Cesaire and Kagami Tsurugi pay for everything they have done to you. You will rule Paris one day with Adrien and his wealth by your side, and you will make them know how to feels to have nothing, to have no one, to be nothing. You will destroy their families and serve justice for them not helping your mother.”

Lila and her mother had lived in Paris for longer than Marinette and her family. The Dupain Bakery had been run by a cantankerous old man before Tom Dupain and his new wife, Sabine Cheng, returned from China with their young daughter and took over the business. Lila’s mother had asked the old man to take her on as a baker or even as a waitress but he’d spat slurs at her until she’d fled the bakery with her damaged pride and worry for the young mouth she had to feed. Her mother never went back to the bakery but every time Lila saw the smiling faces of Tom and Sabine at an event they were catering, she thought of a time when her mother wasn’t too exhausted to function.

Alya’s mother, Marlena, was the head chef at Le Grande Paris restaurant and had been kind to Lila’s mother for as long as she worked there. Marlena and her husband were born in France but had Creole heritage, Marlena understood some of the disdain Lila’s mother endured and tried to make her feel welcome. Lila never had the chance to meet Alya before she started at College Francoise Dupont but after Marlena had been forced to fire her mother, Lila had vowed to make the other girl pay. It wasn’t her mother’s fault that a patron had assaulted her and she’d accidentally spilled hot soup on him, the man who grabbed her ass should have been punished, not her mother who was working to feed her. Alya had two parents and wouldn’t ever have to worry about her next meal, Alya’s mother had taken a woman who was supporting a sick child with what she had and left her in the gutter to die.

Kagami had taken Adrien’s focus off her. He no longer worried about settling Lila into the school and helping keep her caught up on work. He’d barely spoken to her today when he sat next to her in class. She’d spent quite a few painstaking hours forging her mother’s signature on a letter to the school to ensure Adrien would have to spend as much time as possible with her but he hadn’t deigned to say more than a few words, instead looking around the room to avoid her gaze. He’d spent lunch with Kagami too, and Marinette, and Alya. Lila would make him love her. He had no choice.

She didn’t know where to begin when it came to the pain Chloe had caused her. Lila’s mother had applied for a job at the Bourgeois residence a year ago, after Lila had started at Francoise Dupont, and Chloe had mercilessly mocked her for it. Chloe had hired Lila’s mother for a week, and held her mother’s job over Lila like a carrot to a horse, ensuring that Lila did whatever she wanted. Lila had almost been akumatised but Ivan had been instead, his rage so much more susceptible to the butterfly than her frustration. Her mother had then been unceremoniously let go, leaving her bedridden as Lila scraped in what she could to afford doctors visits for her now raging cold. After her mother had finally gotten better, Mayor Bourgeois had hired her again, saying that she was lucky that Chloe had taken pity on her and convinced him to take her back on as a maid. Chloe had spun a false story that made it appear as if Lila’s mother had stolen a valuable necklace from her, Lila knew that Chloe had actually given that very necklace to Sabrina several weeks before; but that was where her mother worked now, doing all the jobs other servants didn’t want to do. Her mother worked longer hours than she should, did jobs damaging to her already fragile health, and her employers paid little attention. Every time something broke, which was awfully often, the cost of repair would be taken out of Lila’s mother’s paycheque. 

The cost of renting in Paris was ridiculously steep, meaning that pay that had once seemed generous barely kept them alive but after the deductions from every broken object, it was even less.

Looking at her face in the mirror, Lila vowed to make each of them pay and take from them what their families had denied her. Adrien was beautiful and kind but, most importantly, he was wealthy. He was the only person who could love Lila, who could fix the terrible life she came from. But Lila knew that there was no redemption for her, even if he loved her.

In her heart, she knew that she wouldn’t stop once she got everything she wanted. She was going to kill the man who sired her and leave his body in a gutter. She was going to completely isolate Adrien so he had no one and nothing but her, then she was going to use his family’s influence to become the most powerful person the world had ever seen. No matter how horrible the life she had was, she would never be happy unless everyone else was not.

~~~~~~~~~

Dressed as Chat Noir, Adrien leaned against a chimney and watched Marinette standing on her balcony. She looked so serene but so tense and worried at the same time, her body like a tightly coiled wire. Her azure eyes flicked around the houses in front of her, a frown growing on her beautiful face. He knew that she was looking for him but he wanted to wait another minute before he skipped across the roof-tops to her. Adrien had let Rena Rouge and Carapace know that he had plans come up tonight, meaning that he was going to be unable to finish his patrol; the two had looked at each other, sharing a knowing glance, and agreed that Carapace would take over his patrol tonight. Rena had pulled him aside afterwards and asked him, not so subtly, if he had a date planned; he’d felt his cheeks flare red under the mask and the gleam in Rena’s eye told him that she hadn’t missed it, something about her multicoloured opal eyes reminded him of Alya and the stance she held before him echoed the reporter perfectly. 

It had been a while since Chat Noir and Rena Rogue had seen each other, just the two of them, and both had grown older and wiser over the summer holidays. Adrien was more perceptive since discovering Marinette was Ladybug, spending a lot of time analysing the way she walked, the way she talked and the way she stood. Alya had never stopped being perceptive but she’d always been so preoccupied when she dressed as Rena and she’d never taken the time to pick apart every aspect of who the boy in the black catsuit could be.

“Alya?” Adrien’s voice had softened. Carapace behind him was tapping a message to Ladybug to tell her of the patrol change tonight on his shell-phone (as he jokingly called it). The way he said her name had Alya’s eyes widening to saucers and her jaw dropping.

“Is that you behind that mask, Adrien Agreste?” Alya flicked her fingers against his forehead, Adrien batted her hand away.

“Who else could it be, you tricky fox?” He gave a devious smirk and winked.

“Somehow, you had been the last person I’d ever expected to be Chat Noir but I’d never expected Nino to be Carapace eithe-,” Alya slapped her hand over her mouth and shook her head, not looking at Adrien at all.

“N-Nino is Carapace?” Adrien’s eyes widened too, the black pupils shrinking to a pinprick. “That means Marin-, Lady-.”

“Marin? Do you mean Marinette?” Alya cut Adrien off with a quizzical look. She didn’t understand why he’d correlated Nino with Marinette and she was sure that she could dissect it but she didn’t have the mental space currently after discovering that Adrien ‘I live in a tower’ Agreste liked to dress in a skintight black cat suit and skip across Parisian rooftops, putting himself in near constant danger.

“Uh….,” Adrien paused awkwardly and shuffled his feet. “No?”

Alya’s eyes widened even further, the sclera fully haloing the glimmering rainbow of her eyes. “Marinette is Ladybug,” The words felt so weird but so right on her tongue. “Oh my god, Marinette is Ladybug and Ladybug is Marinette. How did I not notice earlier!”

“Shhhh, sh, sh, sh,” Adrien covered Alya’s mouth with his hand before she could call Cara- Nino’s attention to their discussion. “She doesn’t know that I know and she can’t know that you know.”

“It makes sense why she chose me now. It wasn’t because of the Ladyblog or just because Ella and Etta became the Sapotis, it was because I’m her best friend and there’s nothing like fighting crime with your bestie,” Adrien’s hand muffled Alya’s rambling, but he nodded.

“Oh shiiiiiit, what’d you do, Al?” Nino’s casual tone broke through the awkward air surrounding the position Alya and Adrien were in. “Wait, sorry, lemme try again, what’d you do, Nine-tails?”

Adrien took his hand off Alya’s mouth and sighed. Alya and Nino knew who each other were and if their superhero relationship was anything like their civilian one then secrets wouldn’t stay secret between them for long. 

“Well shit, Nino,” Adrien rubbed his fingers across his brow. “You blew her cover.”

“I’m not Nino, who is Nino?” Nino put on a fake accent, looking awkwardly around the rooftop as if that would erase the knowledge Adrien now had.

“Can I say it?” Alya looked at Adrien who gave a single nod. Placing her hand gently on Nino’s cheek, Alya turned his face so his eyes would meet hers. “Adrien is Chat Noir, Speilberg.”

“Uh, not a good time to be pulling my leg, Al,” Nino looked so confused, his eyes tearing from those of his girlfriend to assess Adrien. “Like, really not a good time. I’m about to head out on a patrol and this prank really isn’t gonna help me keep a level head if I have to spend the whole time freakin’ out about Adrien possibly lying to me.”

Something cold formed in the pit of Adrien’s stomach. “She’s not pranking you, Nino,” Adrien dropped the jovial tone he used specifically for Chat Noir and slipped into his usual restrained voice, the one Nino heard daily and would have no choice but to recognise. “It’s me.”

Alya’s hand still on his face, Nino’s head snapped between the two of them.

“You’re definitely pulling my leg, this isn’t funny, how’d you get Chat to copy Adrien’s voice so well, Nine-tails?” Nino shook his head vigorously, removing Alya’s hand from his face by her orange clad wrist. “This isn’t funny.”

“Plagg, claws in,” Adrien knew there was no other way to convince Nino that he was Chat Noir and if he didn’t show him the truth, Adrien might very well ruin his relationship with Alya. Marinette would skin him alive if he tore Nino and Alya apart, they had found each other when both of them were very lost and had found their way together, if he destroyed that she would never, ever forgive him. The Chat Noir suit melted off Adrien’s body and clotted together to form Plagg who promptly fell, groaning, to the floor of building the three were stood upon.

Nino’s eyes bugged out of his head, stretching further than should be humanly possible. He shook his head, eyes closed, before looking at Adrien again.

“Dude, you...you’re Chat Noir?” Nino looked at Alya as he confusedly questioned his best friend. Alya gave her boyfriend a reassuring half smile and nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I-Ladybug said that I couldn’t tell you that I was Chat Noir because it could put you and your families in danger,” Adrien’s brow creased as he remembered Marinette insisting that their loved ones came first. “But, now that you’re Carapace, you and Alya should know who I am.”

“Does Ladybug know?” Nino went straight to the point. With an air of sadness, Adrien shook his head. “So, you don’t know who Ladybug is?”

“He didn’t say that, Speilberg,” Alya cut in over the top, reminding the two boys that she was still there and a part of the conversation.

“So you do know who Ladybug is?” Nino cocked his head. He was well aware of Adrien’s crush on Ladybug and if his best friend knew who the girl behind the mask was then surely he’d asked her out.

“Uuuuuuuh………,” Adrien bit his lip. “Plagg, claws out.”

The Chat Noir suit folded back around Adrien’s body, the Cat Kwami groaning as his form dispersed into the costume.

“You know who Ladybug is but she doesn’t know who you are?” Nino had taken Adrien’s sudden transformation as an avoidance tactic. “Is she someone we know?”

“Uh,” Adrien didn’t want to give Mari away to Nino like he did to Alya. Being Chat had been his best kept secret but only because he’d never interacted with anyone aside from Ladybug before Rena Rouge and Carapace had joined them. Marinette had never asked who he was under the mask and had actually insisted that he didn’t tell her, he wasn’t going to disobey her wishes. Especially after his interaction with Tikki.

“Nino,” Alya pinched his arm. 

“We definitely know her,” Nino rubbed his arm where Alya had pinched him. “Al knows who she is doesn’t she?”

Adrien opened and then closed his mouth, Nino bit his tongue to hold back making a joke about how good Adrien’s fish impression was.

“Imma start rifling off names cause I’m getting impatient and ya both know that I’m not a fan of puzzles. I’m a music man and filmmaker extraordinaire but puzzle maester I am not,” Alya pressed her lips together and rolled her eyes, she loved his stubbornness but she wasn’t sure if this warranted another pinch or letting him continue to press Adrien. “Ahhhh...Chloe?”

Adrien shook his head. Why would Nino immediately go for Chloe?

“Good, even if she has changed, I couldn’t imagine her keeping being Ladybug a secret, plus she did fight with us as Queen Bee, didn’t she? So I should-a ruled her out immediately,” Alya grimaced. “Sabrina?”

Another head shake, this time Alya gave one too. Neither Adrien nor Alya realised it but in deciding to ask the name of every single girl Nino, Adrien and Alya knew, Nino was attempting to hold them up as long as possible before he went on patrol. It may be selfish but he wanted to spend more time with Alya and he was still getting used to the fact that Adrien, his best friend, was Chat Noir. He knew that he’d asked why Adrien would want to lie to him but after accepting that it was Adrien in front of him, he didn’t want to bring that back up; Nino didn’t like hurting people and he especially didn’t like hurting Adrien. The look on Adrien’s face after Nino had made the statement told him that his words had injured his best friend. 

“Ladybug has dark hair...dark hair...dark hair,” Nino tapped his chin and started to pace. Alya shot a look at Adrien and mouthed the words ‘I think all the thinking is hurting him’, Adrien sneezed out a chuckle. “Juleka?”

“Nope,” Alya responded this time, cocking her hip and gently folding her arms below her bust. The smile on her face was casual and loving.

“Am I getting warmer or colder?” Nino pursed his lips.

“You’re getting soup,” Adrien stuck his chin out and leaned forward, extending his baton and resting both his hands and chin on the top of it.

“I dunno what that means. It can’t be Marc, I know they could match the voice but I don’t think they’d fit the suit,” Nino paused. “The voice, Ladybug’s voice, Al, do you have a recording?”

“Of course I have a recording,” Alya whipped out the Illusion flute and flicked the cap on the end off, opening up the screen beneath. Running her glove covered finger across it, Alya started to play a recording of Ladybug’s voice through the flute. She’d hooked the computer in the flute up to her phone and now had access to all the recordings she had of her interviews with Ladybug.

“...don’t worry, I’ve got you,” The soft voice coming through the speaker cooed to whoever was on the other end. Alya had taken this recording last time she’d helped Marinette take down an Akuma, the victim had been a little toddler who had immediately started bawling as soon as the possession left her body.

“T-that sounds like Mari,” Nino pointed at the flute with a knowing grin. “That’s a recording of Mari. Mari is Ladybug.”

“Ding, ding, ding,” Adrien wiggled his hips slightly, still balancing his chin on the baton. 

“Wait, I’m correct?” Nino actually looked very confused. He’d been playing to win but Mari was the last person he thought would be Ladybug. She was incredibly clumsy, not overly strong and very, very shy; Nino wasn’t sure that she could survive the stunts Ladybug did. Then he remembered that he’d seen Mari actually remained balanced during a gymnastics lesson at school, he’d seen her moving stacks of chairs heavier than she was, and she’d become more open, so much less shy. “Mari...Marinette is Ladybug.”

“Yes, she is,” Alya walked over to her boyfriend and placed her hands on his shoulders, her smaller frame melted into Nino’s as she hugged him. “I don’t think there could be anyone better to be Ladybug.”

“She’s selfless, caring, and so strong, that’s why I love her,” Adrien stood up fully and collapsed his baton, sticking it to the magnetic patch on the lower back of his suit. “When I discovered that Marinette was Ladybug, I realised that I was lucky to love someone so brave. Yeah, I was kinda mad at first that she hadn’t told me that she was Ladybug but she did it to protect me.”

“Mari is the perfect Ladybug,” Nino pressed a kiss to the top of Alya’s head, a grin breaking across his face. “You love her, eh?”

“Dammit, Speilberg, that’s what you take from this?” Alya rested her chin against his chest and looked up at him with round eyes. 

“It’s alright, Alya,” Adrien chuckled awkwardly. “I told Nino that I had a crush on Mari during the holidays and he’s been trying to get me to admit to it for weeks.”

“Hell yeah, I have,” Nino rested his arms on Alya’s shoulders and rubbed his chin against her forehead, drawing an annoyed groan from the red-head in his hold. “So you know that Mari is Buggaboo but she doesn’t know that you’re Kitty boy?”

“Yeah,” Adrien chewed his bottom lip, ripping a flake of skin off.

“We know that Mari is Buggaboo and that you’re Kitty boy but she doesn’t know that we know and she also doesn’t know that we know that she doesn’t know,” Nino nodded his head, rubbing his chin against Alya’s forehead again, she struggled to pull out of his grip.

“Basically,” Adrien watched Alya wriggle around in Nino’s grip, trying to make him let go of her. With a grin and a wink toward Adrien, Nino squeezed Alya tighter.

“You’re going to go see her tonight as Chat, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” Adrien’s embarrassment flush painted his cheeks again, even Alya hadn’t asked that. 

“Do you do it often?” Alya stopped struggling and turned her head as much as she could to face Adrien, her half crushed smirk just as all knowing as she wanted it to be.

“I haven’t gone and seen her since school started. I haven’t really seen Ladybug either since we sorted out the patrol roster,” Nino loosened his hold on Alya, who simply spun around in his arms and leaned against him.

“Why’re you still here then? Go get her, tiger...cat….dude….Go get her, Kitty boy,” Adrien gave them a wide grin. “Nine-tails and I have got tonights patrol, we’re gonna get on the same page about all-a this.”

“Thanks, Nino, you’re the best,” Adrien walked over to Nino who fully let go of Alya and pulled Adrien into a tight hug. Adrien hugged his best friend back.

“I didn’t mean it, man. I understand that you didn’t tell me cause you wanted to keep Al and I safe. It means so much to me that you did it for us,” Nino’s voice was soft, a level that only Adrien was meant to hear but the enhanced hearing that came with Alya’s Fox miraculous meant that she’d heard them too. “I’d ask you to stay safe but that’s impossible in this line of work, so just...don’t get yourself killed. Love you, man.”

“Love you too, Speilberg,” Adrien squeezed a little tighter and lifted Nino off the ground slightly. Nino was taller than him so it wasn’t easy but it didn’t stop him. The two boys let each other go and engaged in their rather complicated handshake. Alya flung herself at Adrien and pulled him into a bone crushing hug before letting go and walking to stand beside Nino.

“Don’t hurt her, Agreste,” Alya’s voice was barbed as she gave him her warning. “I don’t care if you’re this jackasses best friend,” Alya pointed her thumb at Nino. “I will gut you, understand?”

“I understand,” Adrien swore with his hand over his heart. They walked across the roof to the edge, Nino glanced at Alya who nodded. Nino vaulted himself over the edge, leaving Alya lingering in the dimming sunlight, a halo of gold illuminating her orange and white costume.

“Please, let her tell you first,” Alya’s voice was soft and her eyes glistened with unshed tears. What she was crying about, Adrien didn’t know. “Don’t tell her that you’re Chat Noir until she asks, please don’t force her to come out as Ladybug to you either; you’ll stress the ever loving shit out of Mari if you do and it could send you both right into Hawkmoth’s clutches. She is the sweetest, strongest, most wonderful girl I have ever met but she carries her life on the head of a pin and the slightest wobble could send everything she has falling to the ground. She loves you, as Adrien and as Chat, but you need to let her tell you first.”

“Tikki said the same thing,” Alya gave him a confused look, her head tipping slightly. “The Ladybug Kwami.”

“Great minds think alike,” Alya laughed through her nose. “But give her time, Adrien, her heart is made of glass and we don’t want her to shatter. You might think that telling her that you know, that Nino and I know, would make things easier for her but rocking the boat before she has a lifejacket on will kill her. The work Mari does for Jagged Stone, her designs, her friendships, her grades, her job at her parent’s bakery, and her life as Ladybug are all on the line.”

“I promise you, Alya, I’ll take care of her and I won’t do anything to hurt her. You have my full permission to bury me in an unmarked grave if I do,” Alya slid her foot slightly over the edge of the roof, her heel planted on what was left of the roof beneath her.

“It’s laughable that you think I need your permission,” Alya leapt off the roof, leaving Adrien all alone, watching the space where she’d been until the forms of both her and Nino could be seen racing across the roofs through the glaring, setting sun.

Immediately after Alya and Nino had disappeared into Paris, Adrien had made his way to Marinette’s where he still stood, watching the now cooling wind pick up the wisps of her fringe. Exhaling his nervousness, Adrien started to move across the roofs into Marinette’s line of sight, he saw her head perk up as her eyes locked onto him. She had been waiting for him after all. Her smile set a blaze burning in his stomach, his chest, and his head, with a full and dimpled grin he catapulted onto her balcony and drew her into an embrace.


	7. Chapter 7

“What’s wrong, Kitty?” Marinette’s question was muffled against Chat’s chest. 

“Can’t a guy give his best friend a hug?” Chat looked down at her with a playful smile that showed both his dimples and his slightly elongated canines. The way he said best friend sent a pang through her chest.

“Well, you can but it was just unexpected,” Chat Noir pulled back slightly and looked down at the dark haired girl with her arms currently squished against her sides. Her frame fit into his so perfectly, the top of her head tucked under his chin with no effort and her slight build clicked into his larger one like she had been made for him. Adrien didn’t want to release Marinette but he pulled away, drawing his arms away from her. With her own arms free, Mari leapt forward and threw her arms around his neck, to stop her from falling he wrapped his black clad arms around her waist. She pressed her cheek into his shoulder and inhaled against the high black collar at the neck of his suit, the feeling of her warm breath a hair's-breadth away from his skin sent a ripple of goose-flesh across his body. Lifting her off the ground, Adrien took a slightly shaking step and walked the two of them across to Mari’s daybed.

Twisting so Mari was on top of him as he crashed back onto the daybed. Marinette fell into a fit of adorable giggles as Chat let out a small ‘oof’ from impact. Putting her hands on either side of Chat’s head, Mari raised herself up and looked down at him. Her blue doe eyes shone with mirth and her perfectly shaped lips had formed a radiant smile around the hearty, sincere laugh leaving her body. Her long, thick lashes dusted the tops of her cheeks like soot as she blinked and tipped her head, the smile still on her bowed lips and aftershocks of her laugh still rocking her body.

“What’re you thinkin’ about, purr-incess?” Chat grinned up at her, the world faded away and the only thing that remained was the beautiful girl leaning over him. Her left leg was between his, both of her knees making gentle contact with the surface of the daybed. Her hips were settled over his abdomen with their stomachs pressed together, Adrien could feel the muscles in Marinette’s abdomen, a badge honouring the work she did as Ladybug even if she didn’t want it honoured herself. Her stomach was hard, though still softer than his, and her arms were lean, muscled, he could feel the concealed strength in her thighs too.

“You’re pretty,” Marinette blinked again and gave him a sweet smile. She could feel his heart thundering just like hers was thundering, praying to whatever was out there she hoped that he wouldn’t guess that she was incredibly nervous. This wasn’t what she’d planned to happen tonight but, to be honest, she hadn’t planned anything so hovering above Chat, looking at his beautiful masked faced and splayed golden hair seemed better than sitting in awkward silence. She’d never been in a position like this with a boy before, her cheeks started to heat as she remembered how inexperienced she was when it came to people in general. Her first kiss had been Adrien but she’d thought he was a wax statue and he’d turned her down shortly after so she didn’t really know if it counted.

“You’re pretty,” he breathed, cocking his head as his pupils blew incredibly wide. Balancing on one arm, Mari brushed a strand of his hair off his face, her fingertips lingering against the suntanned skin of his cheek. 

“Am I?” She twisted the lock of hair around one of her fingers, the stainy strands separating like fraying silk. 

“Very much so, princesa,” Chat braced his clawed hands on Marinette’s waist where the cotton singlet she was wearing rode up slightly. As if his suit knew what he was doing, the fabric covering his hands thinned until he could feel the gentle heat of her skin and the concealed strength finely corded beneath it. Looking up into her beautiful gaze, Adrien remembered the 14 year olds they’d been when they met and how much she’d changed in the past 3 years, at 17 she was more beautiful than the models he’d seen who had cultivated their beauty for longer than Adrien and Marinette had walked this earth.

“You’re very pretty too, Chaton,” Mari’s thumb brushed his ear as she lowered her hand back down beside his head. The glowing fairy lights of her balcony caught the glorious midnight strands of her hair as she tipped her head again, they cast shimmering haloes on the loosening hair held in pigtails by two red, cloth hair-ties.

“Why do you think I’m pretty?” He wanted to lean up toward her and press his lips to hers but he couldn’t take his eyes off her face, the proximity she had to him and the airbrushed perfection of her skin caused by the dim lighting around them. Marinette’s skin wasn’t the botoxed plastic or makeup caked skin he normally saw when he was this close to a girl, she was real and looked real. The freckles on her face were more abundant on her left cheek than her right, there was a small scar on the right side of her nose below her eye, she had a beauty mark high on her right cheek too, the fact that she was so imperfect was what made her perfect to him.

“Does the Chat need his ego stroked?” Mari stuck her tongue out at him and gave a cheeky chuckle. “I think you’re pretty because you’re kind,” She tangled her left hand into the long, silken strands of his hair. “Because you’re brave,” Her heart thundered harder. “You’re funny,” His heart synchronised with the rapid pace of Marinette’s. “You listen to me,” She lowered her head slightly, not really registering what she was doing. “You don’t think I’m clumsy, or silly, or annoying, and you make me feel indestructible.”

Without hesitation, Chat moved one of his hands to her hair and pulled the hair-ties out, sliding them onto his wrist one by one. Tangling his hand into her now loose hair, Adrien leaned up and kissed her.

Their lips didn’t move at first, only stayed pressed together but, in a matter of seconds, their eyes slid closed and they fell into an awkward rhythm. Neither Marinette nor Adrien had properly kissed anyone before so it took some time for them to find a steady, comfortable rhythm.

Marinette pulled away, her breathing hitched slightly and her cheeks glowing a stunning scarlet.

“Woah,” Adrien’s pupils had completely eclipsed the green of his iris.

“Woah indeed,” A shy smile crept across Mari’s face, so much more beautiful since he knew that he’d put it there. Adrien’s claw tipped hand was still twined into her hair, the thinness of his gloves allowing him indulge in the inky cascade that curtained them in a world of their own. “Have you done that before?”

“No, have you? You seem very good at it,” Marinette ducked her head slightly at the comment, causing the waterfall of hair to slide across his face and into his mouth. “Corazon, your hair is in my mouth.”

Mari pulled her head back up immediately and pulled her hair from Chat’s mouth. “I’m sorry,”   
She brushed her fingers against his chin. “I haven’t really kissed anyone before. I-I don’t know if my first kiss even counts as a kiss.”

Adrien suddenly felt a raging jealousy begin to form in his heart. Someone had given her such a bad first kiss that she didn’t even register it as one, he was jealous that someone else had taken it but angry that they hadn’t made it good for her.

“Who was your first kiss?” He fought to keep his voice level. She turned away from him slightly.

“Uh...his name is Adrien Agreste,” Chat’s heart froze in his chest. He’d been her first kiss. His mind sloppily sorted back through every moment he’d had with Mari right back to the day he’d met her. The filing cabinet of his mind an absolute mess. “I don’t know if it counts as a first kiss because...well...because I thought he was a wax statue.”

It clicked in Adrien’s head. “He sounds like an idiot,” Marinette gave him small smile as he disentangled his hand from her hair.

“He is a bit of an idiot but he might grow out of it,” Mari sat up, still sitting on Chat’s abdomen and stretched. His hands were braced on the dip of her waist again, his thumbs brushing the skin. “I don’t think you’ll grow out of being an idiot though, Chaton.”

“I don’t think you’ll ever grow out of being beautiful, Corazon,” Marinette stuck her tongue out at him and flicked his nose. A chilly wind blew between them, causing Mari to shiver and wrap her cardigan around herself, covering his hands. “Let’s adjourn to your bedroom?”

“Don’t get any ideas, Chaton, my parents are downstairs and I have school tomorrow,” Adrien lifted Mari off him slightly and sat up. He moved his hands to hold the undersides of her thighs and stood in one swift motion, holding her to him.

“I wouldn’t dream of it, Fermosa,” With Marinette’s legs wrapped around his waist, Adrien used one of his hands to pull one of the doors leading into her room open and slip into the warmth inside. Waltzing over to Mari’s messily made bed, Chat gently squeezed her thighs earning a flick to his nose from the dark haired girl in his arms. He put her down on the covers and sat down beside her. “We both know that I am completely at your mercy, your wish is my command.”

“I’ve got you wrapped around my little finger, haven’t I?” Marinette placed her warm hand, the sleeve of her cardigan pulled over it slightly, on Adrien’s bare cheek and rubbed the stubbled skin of his neck.

“Oh, completely, princess, completely,” He leaned into her hand and settled back into her soft mattress.

“This is not the night I had planned,” Mari tucked her legs up underneath herself and tipped her head, her hair falling over her shoulder like shimmering silk.

“You had a night planned for us?” Adrien’s ears pricked up, she’d planned something! She’d planned to do something with him and she hadn’t even known if he was going to show!

“Not exactly, silly cat,” Mari reached behind her and grabbed one of her pillows, tucking it in her lap. “But I didn’t see myself...you know...kissing you.”

Adrien raised his eyebrows and smirked at her. “You’re welcome to do that again, Princess,” Mari pursed her lips at him. “When you look at me like that, it’s hard not to do it for you.”

“I….,” Marinette chewed her lip uncomfortably. “I have feelings for you, Chat, and I don’t want you to get the wrong idea that I’m….”

“That you’re…?” Adrien heard his heartbeat in his ears as she admitted having feelings for him.

“That I just want to have sex or...use your fame for myself. I really like you, Chat, really really really like you...I-I think might love you, Chat Noir,” Marinette’s voice got ever quieter as she progressed through her admission. Adrien leaned forward and kissed her on the lips, cupping her face.  
“I think I might love you too, Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Chat whispered against her mouth, resting his forehead against hers. “I think I have for a while.”

Mari covered his hand with her own and looked into his eyes with a sweet smile. “I think I started when you went cat-packing during the summer,”

“Cat-packing?” He understood the play on words but she’d thought this one though, he wanted to see her explain it so he could tell her how good it was.

“Like backpacking, but you’re a cat,” Marinette rubbed her nose against his.

“That’s a very clever pun, Miss Dupain-Cheng, I’m definitely going to have to use it some time,” He pressed his nose against hers slightly harder, the air between them combining.

“I would be honoured if you did,” She pressed a kiss to the corner of his lips.

“I’ll tell any who ask that my girlfriend thought of it for me,” Mari pulled away suddenly and looked at him with the biggest, bluest eyes he’d ever seen.

“Y-your girlfriend,” Adrien wasn’t sure if he’d fucked this up. Had he fucked up by calling her his girlfriend? She was wasn’t she? “I’m your girlfriend?”

“I mean, if you’d like to be,” Chat folded his hands in his lap and glanced at her, worried.

“Yes,”

“Yes?” Chat’s eyes met Mari’s, silver lined her eyes and threatened to burst down over her cheeks. 

“I want to be your girlfriend,” Dropping the pillow, Mari crawled forward and settled herself comfortably in Chat’s lap. “If you’ll have me.”

“I would be incredibly lucky to have you,” Chat’s arms circled Mari’s frame and held her against his swiftly beating heart. She was his, he was hers, he couldn’t be luckier. “I couldn’t imagine a more incredible girl to call my own.”

Mari placed a gentle hand on Adrien’s chest and felt the raging of his heart beneath her palm. “I want to know who you are, Chat,” the words echoed in his ears like a song he hadn’t heard for much too long. “But right now isn’t the time.”

“When you’re ready, Mari, I’ll show you everything,” Adrien pressed a kiss to her head and inhaled the sweet orange blossom scent of her hair. “Your happiness is my first priority.”

“Thank you, Chat,” Mari rested her head against his neck, and nuzzled up under his chin. Maybe she was more catlike than he was. “That means a lot to me.”

“I know, Mari, I know,” Adrien squeezed her against him. “You’d best get to bed now, princesa, or you won’t be able to focus at school tomorrow and I would absolutely hate to be the one who caused that.”

Adrien maneuvered Mari and rested her back against the pillows, pulling her sheets up over her. 

“This is the second time you’ve put me to bed, Kitty,” Marinette tucked her blankets underneath her arms.

“And it won’t be the last, Corazon,” Adrien pressed a kiss to Mari’s forehead. “Now sleep, you’ll see me soon.”

“H-how do I contact you, Chat? You can’t give me your civilian phone number until I’m ready to know you in person but I can’t not speak to you,” He pulled away and scanned the room, Adrien had two phones. Two phone numbers, one he used for his everyday life and the other was a back up. Seeing some paper and a few pens scattered on Marinette’s desk, Chat walked over and scribbled his back up number on a blank corner of her maths homework.

“I’m keeping this over here, princesa, and I’m going to hope that you wait until morning to contact me but I won’t be able to stop you if you don’t,” He added a small heart next to the neatly scribbled phone number and walked to the balcony doors. “Your lights are voice activated, right?”

“Yeah. Light, off,” The lights in Mari’s room flicked off, Chat opened the door and stepped outside. “Good night, Kitty.”

“Good night, mi corazon,” He blew her a kiss and closed the door behind him. His heart and head were so incredibly light that he felt as if he would blow away in the gentlest wind. Passing Alya and Nino sitting together on a rooftop, chatting and listening to music, Adrien decided to dally for a moment.

“How’d it go, man?” Nino asked when Adrien slid to sit beside him.

“I asked her out,” Alya’s head snapped to look at him immediately, her jaw hitting the floor. “She said yes.”

“Does that mean she knows who you are now?” Nino clapped Adrien on the back. “Congrats by the way.”

“Uh, no,”   
“Excuse me, what?” Alya’s low voice cut through the dark night with incredible precision. 

“She said that she’ll ask me to ‘unmask’ to her when she’d ready,” The murderous look on Alya’s face dissipated.

“Mari is a smart girl, I hope it doesn’t take long for her to ask,” Alya reached across Nino and gripped Adrien’s hand. “I’m happy for you, Adrien. I know that you’ll take good care of each other.”

“Thanks, Alya,” Nino placed his hand on top of Alya’s. “I’d best get home, I’m probably not going to be able to sleep tonight because of how excited I am from her saying yes.”

“By all means, man, go home,” Nino gently nudged Adrien with his shoulder. The blonde haired boy stood up and sketched a bow to his friends before bidding them goodbye and disappearing off into the night.

~~~~~~~  
On opposite sides of Paris, a golden haired boy and a dark haired girl dreamt of each other. She didn’t understand why his mask kept slipping and showing a different golden haired boy who also held her affections. He dreamed of kissing her on a rooftop without their masks, with no walls between them and no more secrets to be kept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> REVEAL!!! WHERE MARI HAS NO CLUE WHAT THE FUCK HAS HAPPENED BUT IT WAS CUTE!


	8. Chapter 8

Something was different about Adrien, Nathalie could sense it. She’d raised him all by herself for so long that his changes in emotion, however subtle, were easier to read than a children’s picture book. When she’d woken him up, he’d been curled on top of his covers with his phone held to his chest, a faint smile graced his lips as he moved slightly in his sleep and sighed. Adrien had hugged her too. He hadn’t hugged her since he was a toddler and she’d be lying if she said that she didn’t miss giving the boy reassurance through the physical contact his father denied him.

He was taller than her too, the top of Nathalie’s head brushed his jaw as he pulled his father’s assistant and the woman who had nurtured him for so long into a crushing hug. With her glasses askew, Nathalie awkwardly rubbed the teenagers back, hugging him now was so different to how it had been when he’d been a bawling child not understanding why his mother only appeared in photos and never to hold him. Adrien pulled away and placed his hands on Nathalie’s shoulders, a broad, serene smile plastered on his slightly stubble framed mouth.

“Thank you, Nathalie,” Adrien’s green eyes were infused with the same smile on his lips. 

“Thank me for what, exactly, Adrien?” Nathalie furrowed her brows and pushed her glasses up with her index finger, Adrien’s hands still braced on her biceps.

“I never thanked you for raising me,” The dimples in Adrien’s cheeks grew deeper as his mouth formed the words. “I thought that I didn’t have a mother, but I was wrong because I have you. My blood-mother is gone and you chose to love me because she couldn’t; I know that you loved my Maman, Nathalie, and I love you enough for both her and I. Like a mother of course,” Adrien gave an awkward but sincere laugh. “I love you like a mother. I don’t think anyone would have done as good a job as you considering our circumstances, thank you so much for loving me like I’m your own.”

Nathalie didn’t understand where this was coming from, but after the words she’d heard Gabriel say a few days ago and the reopened wound of Emilie’s state, his words meant more to her than he would ever know. Gabriel had said that Adrien needed his mother, needed Emilie, but Gabriel had never stopped to see that Adrien already had a mother. Maybe not in name or blood but in deed, Nathalie had been the one that read Adrien’s report cards and congratulated him on his outstanding marks when Gabriel had barely glanced at them; she’d been the one to sign him up for fencing and cheer him on as he won his first competition; Nathalie had been the one to kiss scraped and bruised knees, to attend assemblies, to buy birthday and christmas presents. Emilie, her beautiful Emilie, gave her the swiftly growing man before her and Nathalie had loved him when her own husband could not find the time to.

“W-where is this coming from, Adrien?” Nathalie’s eyes were slowly filling with tears. So many emotions whirled in her chest that she couldn’t decipher if a single one had called them forth or if it was all of them.

“During the holidays, one of my friends told me that Dad would be proud of me, Maman too,” Adrien ran a hand through his sleep tousled hair and gave Nathalie a half-smile. “She also said that you’d be proud of me. I didn’t think much of it at the time but the more I thought about what you do for me, the more I realised that you being proud of me was worth more than anything in this entire world. I spoke to her last night,” Adrien didn’t mention that Marinette had actually sent him a message on the first day back at school, over a month ago, saying that she hoped he’d do Nathalie proud this year and that she may not be the mother he’d spent years pining over but she was the one that had raised him when it wasn’t her burden to bear, he’d saved the message in the notes section of his phone and read it almost daily. The thought of Nathalie being proud of who he was was so much more important to him than the entire trip he’d spent by his father’s side in New York. “And she reminded me to be thankful for what I have.”

“Your friend seems like a very smart young lady,” Nathalie’s lips broke into a watery smile as Adrien’s words became tattooed on her heart, her soul. “Would she be the type of girl you’d bring home to meet your father?”

“Meet Dad?” Adrien feigned confusion. “Nah, but meet my mum? I think she’d love her.”  
“M-mum?” The word was not unfamiliar to Nathalie, Adrien and Gabriel had used the words ‘maman’ and ‘mother’ many times but only when referring to Emilie. Nathalie hadn’t had time to have a family of her own, the Agreste’s had become that for her. She’d stood beside Emilie on the day she married Gabriel, she’d held Emilie’s hand as Adrien was born, she’d cried over Emilie’s comatose body after the combining of the broken Peacock miraculous and Butterfly miraculous had suspended her soul in purgatory; then she’d stayed with her beloved’s family, falling for her husband and raising her son. The Agreste’s were her family, or Adrien was at least.

“Would you prefer something else? Mama?” Adrien’s eyes were huge and innocent, sending Nathalie back to the day she’d told baby Adrien that Emilie was gone. His question was sincere though, his eyes searching for validation from the one person who had never left his side.

“Mum is fine, Adrien,” Nathalie choked a sob and pushed her slipping glasses back up the bridge of her nose. “I-I’m...I’m...so happy that you think of me as your mother.”

“I’m happy that I have you,” Adrien pulled Nathalie into another hug, careful not to knock her glasses sideways this time. “I’m sorry that I never thanked you before for loving me, taking care of me.”

“It’s alright, I never expected that you’d see me as anything more than your father’s assistant,” The awkwardness had faded away, replaced with a giddy happiness. Nathalie hugged Adrien back, her arms wrapped around the thin waist of the teen as her smile grew wider.

“You’ve raised me more than he has and it wasn’t even your job to do it. I know you get paid to be his assistant and everything but you never had to accept the task of looking after me. You did accept the task though, and because of you, I’ve had at least one solid person in my life,” Nathalie hiccuped. “You’d love her, Mum, and I’m sure she’d love you too.”

Adrien pulled away with his own tear drenched smile and met Nathalie’s eyes through her tear fogged classes. “To know that I’m making you proud, that I’m becoming half the person you are, is worth more than any priceless possession or trivial compliment anyone could give me,” Nathalie brushed her fringe out of her eyes, the dark locks had tangled with her lashes and were now damp with salt-water tears.

“I am proud of you, Adrien, so proud of you,” She placed her hand on his cheek and thought of Emilie. Emilie had seemed even more perfect with baby Adrien in her arms, sitting on the chair beside her, Nathalie had imagined that they were hers, that the tiny dozing bundle in Emilie’s arms would grow up with the most loving mothers the world could bless him with. At that frozen moment in time, Gabriel had disappeared to a conference on winter fashions in Los Angeles and had missed the first moments of his wife and child. He’d appeared for several minutes after the birth to discover the sex of his offspring, he’d given Nathalie congratulations to pass on to Emilie and then walked down the hall with a ramrom straight back. “Emilie is proud of you too, I can feel it. You’re such a wonderful boy and you’re growing into an incredible man, we’re so proud of you.”

Adrien pressed a kiss to Nathalie’s cheek and said that he needed to get ready for school, with an overwhelmed smile Nathalie had left him to prepare as she organised his breakfast. They ate together, something neither of them had really done before, Nathalie generally stood at Adrien’s side and watched him eat in complete silence after Gabriel had made another excuse not to spend time with his son but now she sat with him as he told her a story about one of his friends at school forgetting to tie their shoelaces up and face-planting in the middle of physical education.

She savoured this moment, the first moment she’d really been a mother. Emilie had been a mother as soon as Adrien had left her body in a rush of pain and screaming but Nathalie had become one as soon as Adrien had hugged her and thanked her for loving him. He was more animated than she’d ever seen him, his eyes sparkling with happiness as he spoke and grinned at the laughs she gave in response to his awful jokes. This is how he should have been, this is the life Adrien had deserved the minute he began growing inside Emilie, and Nathalie knew that Emilie would want him to be happy, even if it meant she wouldn’t get to see it.

After she’d walked Adrien out the door and waved goodbye to him, Nathalie walked to her office and locked the door behind her. With a half sob-half laugh, she picked up a picture frame on her desk and looked at the glossy photo encased in the glass. Emilie holding toddler Adrien with Nathalie’s arm wrapped around her in the shining green of a park, they looked like a family, like the family he should have had. Looking at Emilie’s radiant face, Nathalie came to the realisation that she’d never actually loved Gabriel how she thought she had but that she’d loved the constant state of agony he’d left her in after he’d told her of his plan to raise Emilie. He’d made her a promise and she’d fallen in love with his honeyed, poisoned words, thinking him to be a replacement for Emilie when he wasn’t even a shadow of the solar eclipse she had been. Putting the frame gently down on her desk as she rounded it, Nathalie angled toward the top drawer of her desk.

Opening the drawer, Nathalie removed the false bottom and pressed her thumb to the fingerprint scanner beneath, the metal beneath the scanner clicked and allowed Nathalie to remove that too. Inside the drawer was a miraculous box, holding the brooch that housed Duusuu, the Peacock Kwami. With careful fingers, Nathalie pulled the box from the drawer and flipped it open, calling the Kwami to materialise in front of her.

“Nathalie!” The Kwami dragged out the last vowel of her name as she embraced Nathalie’s face. “You’re all better now! Gabriel said that you might not get better, you look better, are you better?”

“Yes, Duusuu, I’m better,” The Kwami fiercely hugged Nathalie’s cheek and let out a happy, keening squeal. “But there’s been a change of plans.”  
“A change of plans?” Duusuu released Nathalie’s face and floated in front of her, the creature’s fin-like arms crossed over her smooth lilac chest. “What does a change of plans mean?”

“We have to get Nooroo and the Butterfly miraculous away from Gabriel,” Nathalie pushed her glasses up and cut a serious gaze to the large eyes of the Kwami.

“B-but why? Don’t you want to help him wake up Emilie anymore? I’m all better and you’re all better so we should be able to get Tikki and Plagg’s miraculouses now with no trouble and wake her up!” Duusuu did a flip in the air in an attempt to remind Nathalie why they’d been bonded.

“I can’t let him wake her up, Duusuu, it would ruin everything,” Duusuu stopped her aerial acrobatics and furrowed her tiny, hairless brow. “Emilie wouldn’t forgive him for what he did to wake her up, she wouldn’t forgive him for neglecting Adrien, and Adrien,” Nathalie sighed heavily. “Adrien hasn’t seen his mother since he was a toddler and while he didn’t say that she was dead, he wouldn’t know how to act if he saw her again. It would tear him apart.”

“You loved Emilie, didn’t you?” Duusuu sat on the edge of Nathalie’s desk and arranged the strange feathers of her tail prettily around her.

“I still love her, and I know that she wouldn’t want this,” Nathalie’s voice turned sombre but she knew, she KNEW, that this was the right thing. Nooroo was too dangerous in Gabriel’s hands and if Gabriel succeeded in his foolish mission to bring Emilie back, he would ruin things more than he already had when he forced her to combine them. The claims he made about doing it for Adrien were utter bullshit, if he wanted anything to do with his son he would’ve spent the past decade and a half raising him. Gabriel was selfish and only wanted the woman who made sunshine seem as dark as a void to exist for him and him alone. He may have loved her, in a twisted way, but he didn’t love Emilie like Nathalie did. “Adrien is my son, I raised him, and Gabriel no longer gets a say in what would be best for the child that he neglected.”

“You know that I would never argue with you, Nathalie, but if I did, I know I would’ve lost this one,” Duusuu blinked slowly and gave a small, toothless grin. “Are we going to give Nooroo to Ladybug and Chat Noir when we get him?”

“Yes, they’re the only ones who can keep him as far away from Gabriel as possible. They’re the only ones who stand a chance of saving Adrien,” Nathalie’s voice was hard, determined. She’d lost the love of her life, her best friend, to a selfish monster of a man but she would not lose her son and she would do whatever it took, even at the price of her own life, to protect him. “I need to speak to one of them, Ladybug or Chat Noir.”

“How’re you going to do that? They’ve seen you with Hawkmoth and I really don’t think they trust you very much,” Pursing her lips, Nathalie leaned back in the soft leather of her desk chair and pressed her hand to her lips.

“They might trust you,”

“T-trust me? They’ve never met me, I mean, Tikki and Plagg have but Ladybug and Chat Noir or whoever they are normally haven’t,” Duusuu flew up to Nathalie’s face and hovered anxiously, her huge eyes like full moons.

“Kwamis have the ability to find other Kwamis, right?” 

“Um...to a certain degree, yes,”

“To a certain degree?”

“Well, sometimes Kwamis bond, creating life-pairs. The bonded Kwamis can find each other very, very easily and tend to have emotional bonds, Tikki and Plagg are bonded. She’s still not very happy about it but they are, so it would be easy for either of them to find each other,”

“What’s that got to do with you finding one of them, Duusuu?” Nathalie was growing impatient. She’d been so patient for so long and now that she’d decided to stop Gabriel, she knew that it had to happen quickly.

“It means that I’m only going to be able to follow a vague trail to where one of them is, nothing super precise but I can find the general vicinity,” Nathalie raised an eyebrow. “Magical beings, like Kwamis, can sense each other to a certain degree if they aren’t bonded but if two Kwami’s bond, both of their auras become weaker to other Kwamis.”

“But could you find Tikki or Plagg?”

“Yes, but it may take me a while and it means, possibly, stressing Nooroo out,”

“Wait, wait, wait, you looking for Tikki or Plagg will stress Nooroo out? You’re not going to tell him what’s happening, he’s a powerful Kwami but his mental health is fragile and he would be counterproductive to what we’re doing if he knew what was happening before he’s safely with Ladybug and Chat Noir,”

“He and I are bonded,” Duusuu’s voice was quiet, she fiddled with her fins in front of her. “If my emotional aura is too far away from him, he could worry and send him into an anxiety attack. Nooroo and I bonded after Emilie fell into her coma and we were both freed from our miraculouses. He needed a shoulder to cry on, he was absolutely destroyed by what had happened to Emilie, and I was fading away, my grief tearing me apart, so we bonded so I wouldn’t go wherever Kwamis go when we die and he would know that he was never, ever alone.”

“Okay,” Nathalie raised her hand to the Kwami who sat down on it softly. Pressing a kiss to the creature’s head, she offered her thumb to Duusuu to hold. “I’ll make sure that he doesn’t stress while you’re gone.”

“How’re you going to do that? It it’s that easy to get to him why don’t we get him now and I’ll take him and his miraculous with me to find Tikki and Plagg,” Duusuu’s voice sounded frantic.

“Nooroo can sense emotions and read brainwaves, right?”

“Again, to a certain degree,”

“Next time Gabriel frees Nooroo, I’ll tell him not to worry about you and that you’ll be home soon and that I’m going to be here to provide a calming aura for him until you return,”

“Thank you so much, Nathalie,” Duusuu flew forward and hugged Nathalie’s face again, her voice sounding as teary as possible for a magical peacock creature. “I’ll go find Tikki and Plagg now, please take care of him. I’m going to be back as soon as I can and we’re going to stop Gabriel.”

Duusuu saluted Nathalie with her tiny fin and flew straight through the window into the broad daylight of inner Paris. Spinning in her chair, Nathalie pressed her hand to the glass and watched the Kwami activate her invisibility power, Duusuu disappeared into the cloud dotted horizon.

“Be safe, Duusuu,” Nathalie whispered her request to herself, her thundering heart beating a tattoo against her ribcage. She wasn’t nervous, not anymore. Emilie would do this for her, Adrien would do this for her, so she would do it for them. Gabriel was a selfish, horrible man who didn’t deserve the love Emilie gave him and the son she bore, Nathalie would not feel an ounce of regret as she saved him and his son from himself.

~~~~~~~~~~  
Lila prowled out of the classroom, annoyance and anger rolling off her in thick, poisoned waves. Adrien had convinced Madame Bustier to reconfigure the desk arrangement, saying that Max would be much more suited to helping Lila catch up with schoolwork and that he didn’t feel that he would be able to provide accurate help as he was busy quite a lot of the time. Madame Bustier had eaten the excuse up and moved the desks around; the dark skinned boy with his smart green shirt and square glasses now in the place of the sunshiny one who she had fought tooth and nail to sit with. Due to this one small alteration, Madame Bustier had felt the need to move everyone around.

The teacher said that Alya and Marinette spent so much time giggling and gossiping at the back of the classroom that she was wondering if they’d actually picked anything up in the last few weeks. With a jokingly teary goodbye, Alya had moved down the front of the room and taken her new seat beside Rose as Marinette remained at the back of the room. Juleka had been moved from Rose’s side to Nathaniel’s, the two didn’t look too unhappy at the change and took this as a chance to get to know each other better. Nathaniel was an artist after all and Juleka was a talented musician and part time model; their artistic temperaments were sure to click beautifully. Chloe was placed next to Mylene, Sabrina next to Nino, Alix beside Kim. Glancing around the room, Madame Bustier realised that Adrien and Marinette were at desks by themselves, there wasn’t enough space to keep both of them with desks completely to themselves so she moved Adrien up beside Mari and slotted Ivan and Nino into the now vacant desk.

Lila wanted Adrien to pay attention to her, to love her. She would never get her revenge if the golden boy kept getting further and further away. A light, melodic laugh floated up from the courtyard below Lila, sending her to the rails to look over the edge.

Marinette was sitting on the ground in front of Alya, on a bench, who was braiding her hair while she played a game of snap with Kagami, who had donned her blue kimono coat again. Nino had his laptop open and was fiddling around with some random program as Luka looked over his shoulder and pointed at things, giving him advice. Adrien was walking toward the group, Lila could feel the smile in his stride as he approached. Her hands squeezed the railing before her, the knuckles fading white as the long plastic of her nails dug into her palms.

“I’m not going to let you win this, Dupain-Cheng,” Lila hissed the noxious words through her teeth as she glared daggers at the group far below.

~~~~~~~~  
Adrien felt weird around Mari, not bad weird but ‘I can’t tell my girlfriend that she’s my girlfriend because she thinks she’s dating a guy in a cat costume and doesn’t know that it’s me’ weird. She was radiant in the light, her happiness infectious. Her hair was shinier, her eyes more curious and searching, she looked how Adrien imagined happiness personified would look. He slouched onto the ground beside Mari and stretched out his long legs, her giggles were meshing with Kagami’s laugh as they played the least competitive game of snap he’d ever seen Kagami participate in.

As he watched Marinette and Kagami play, Alya folding the silky black strands of Mari’s hair into a thick, shiny braid, he thought of the talk he’d had with Nathalie before he’d left for school. When he’d gotten home last night from visiting his new girlfriend, he’d climbed into the shower and smiled into the scalding spray hitting his face; he wanted to tell someone, he needed to tell someone. He’d told Alya and Nino of course but he hadn’t told them as Adrien that he was dating Marinette and Marinette didn’t even know that she was dating him, but what about his father? Could he tell his Dad that he was seeing someone?

Adrien had realised in the shower, late last night, that his Dad really wouldn’t care. He’d rifled through every person in his life and realised that, for most of his existence, it had been just him and Nathalie. Climbing out of the shower and dressing, Adrien thought of the screensaver on his computer, a beautiful picture of his mother from before he was born, and felt a very strange sensation zap through the back of his head. He picked up his phone and opened the notes app, where he’d saved Mari’s text from ages ago, saying that she hoped he’d make Nathalie proud. Her words from the holidays played in his mind too, but they kept catching on the words ‘Nathalie’ and ‘proud’, the spare phone in one hand and his normal one in the other, Adrien sat on the edge of his large bed and looked around his room.

He didn’t keep track of how long he sat on his bed and stared into the dark corners of his room but he did remember when his mind had finally come to the conclusion that Marinette had told him to look closer at what Nathalie did for him. Maybe he was reading too much into her words, maybe he was looking for a clue where there wasn’t even a puzzle, but he crossed over to his closet and pulled the doors open. Sliding the clothes hung up inside along the rack, Adrien counted how many of them Nathalie had gotten for him, how many times she’d been the one giving him presents and supporting him; he lost count but he knew that the number was higher than the amount of times his father had even sneezed while physically in his presence. 

The spare phone was safely tucked between Adrien’s mattress and bed-head as he scrolled through the pictures on his phone. Not the ones with his friends or of Marinette/Ladybug but the ones of him at events and competitions, Nathalie was in all of them. Curling onto his side on top of his covers, Adrien decided that Nathalie was the person who meant the most to him, after Mari of course, and he’d never thanked her for it. She’d raised him pretty much single-handedly because Gabriel Agreste didn’t exactly exist to his son past an image on a tablet and an incredibly distant figure. 

Nathalie would love Marinette, Adrien decided, and he couldn’t wait to introduce them to each other. Adrien gazed at the ink-haired girl laughing and chatting before him, watching her lips move and her crystalline eyes roll as Kagami said something to her. 

“Yo, Adrien, come here,” Nino’s voice slapped Adrien out of his daze and called the lithe blonde boy to his side. 

“What’s up, man?” Adrien flashed Luka a smile as he walked around the other side of Nino to lean beside him. The music program Nino used for his dj-ing and music production was open, showing a tonne of different buttons and switches and coloured lines that Adrien really didn’t understand. 

“I’m editing a demo for Luka and I want you to give it a listen, we know that our boy,” Nino pointed his thumb at Luka who laughed and shook his head. “Is one talented jackass but you’re the one with the sensitive ears and Mari is the one who can get this dropped off to Jagged Stone.”

“You’re making a demo, Luka?” Luka cocked an embarrassed half smile and nodded. “That’s awesome! You’re in good hands with Nino editing it for you.”  
“Nino’s been awesome so far, I’m lucky he’s taking the time out of his schedule to help me out,” Luka fiddled with the buckle of the leather bracelet wrapped around his wrist. Kagami saw Luka’s movements out of the corner of her eye and flicked her eyes up to meet his. They’d grown closer over the last few weeks, exchanging numbers 3 days in and speaking in any free time that they had. There wasn’t much in common between the two of them but that’s what made their conversations so interesting, past their shared languages and class, Kagami’s hobbies weren’t even on the same plane as Luka’s. She’d been slowly falling for him over the past few weeks, his easy smile and soft voice had the strings of her heart playing a melody of Luka’s making. He didn’t know how to tell her that he’d already fallen for her, and hard.

She was stiff sometimes, hard to talk to, monstrously competitive, achingly literal, and confusing as hell but Kagami was unlike anyone Luka had ever met. The rarity of her smiles made them work the weight of the Eiffel Tower in gold when she gave them and her occasional jokes were always perfectly timed, thought through and had yet to not send him into a deep belly laugh. Luka knew that he had a tendency to get lost in the currents of his music and float out to sea, everyone thought he was an anchor but he was more untethered than all of them, but Kagami had a way of drawing him back to reality. Her stoicism perfectly matched his spontaneity and balanced both of them out.

Kagami wasn’t good at reading emotions when they were aimed toward her, reading other people was easy but when they turned that attention to her, she would be completely unaware of how they felt about her unless they said it bluntly to her face. She wanted to know if Luka liked her but she didn’t want to give away that she liked him if he didn’t return her affections. Embarrassing herself was Kagami’s biggest fear and rejection was the second biggest, to be rejected and embarrassed would be her own personal hell. Luka couldn’t figure out how to tell her that he liked her, he had no problem with her rejecting him and he could tell that Kagami returned his feelings but he just didn’t know how to bring it up in conversation. The way her eyes lit up when she saw him and her posture softened had been more than enough to tell him that Kagami liked him back.

“That sounds awesome,” Adrien pulled Nino’s earphone off his head and held his hand up to Luka for a high five. Giving Kagami a sweet grin, Luka broke their gaze and turned to slap Adrien’s hand in the high five. 

“I think it’s missing something, I don’t know what,” Nino scratched his head and frowned slightly. Turning the bluetooth off on his laptop, Nino began to play the song out loud to the group. “What do you guys think?”

All chatter in the group died down, Marinette and Kagami paused their game of snap and Alya even stopped braiding Mari’s hair so she could dedicate her full attention to the music. Kagami tilted her head slightly as Luka’s rich singing voice began to filter through the small speakers of the computer, the words weren’t all in English but a mix of French and Spanish too; she caught the word ‘echo’ as the chorus began to play. The lines alternated between the three languages as Luka sang the chorus.

‘Echo, Echo, Echo, I never miss your voice,  
Your eyes, your smile, your laugh,  
Echo, Echo, you could play me in any key,  
But I don’t know how to make you see,  
You’re in my head, in my heart, in my soul,  
When you’re here it’s hard to stay in control,

I’m not Narcissus laying by the pool,  
You’re the only one, Echo, who makes me a fool,  
My head is yours, my soul is your and my heart too,  
Echo, Echo, Echo, you ground me,  
I didn’t understand how perfect an anchor could be,  
But I don’t know, Echo, Echo, how to make you see,’

Kagami translated the lines as the chorus played for the second time. Wa-was this song for her? She met his gaze again, questioning, and was given a poked out tongue as the only answer. Childishly, Kagami stuck her tongue out at him too, so Luka blew her a raspberry which earned Nino clapping his hand over the dark blue and black haired boy’s mouth.

“Piano,” The song ended as Mari’s head perked up with her answer. “It needs a piano. The acoustic guitar is perfect but with an accompanying piano, it could be so much more soulful. I’m not sure it’s going to be Jagged’s style but he’s not the one playing it and he knows better than to turn me down.” Marinette grinned at her friend. Chewing his lip, Adrien studied the computer screen.

“Actually, yeah, I agree with Mari,” Adrien inclined his head toward the girl cross-legged on the courtyard floor. “A piano melody would be perfect with this. Juleka could write up some piano chords for this, couldn’t she?”

Nino took his hand off Luka’s mouth and wiped it on his jeans with a grimace. “Jules definitely could but she’s so busy out of school currently, her modelling is picking up and so is her own music. She really doesn’t have the time, plus, Mum is hoping that she’ll decide to take the class Echo and I are currently taking next year,”

“Damn,” Adrien chewed his bottom lip and looked at Marinette for an idea. Maybe it was because he was the only one out of the two of them that knew they were together or maybe it was because he just wanted to look at the girl who owned his heart.

“You could do it, Adrien,” Mari’s eyes sparkled in the light filtering into the courtyard. “You’re a great pianist and I’m sure you’d be able to write the chords up during your piano lessons, hasn’t your instructor been asking you to write your own notes for weeks?”

“Yeah, Adrien, you could totally do that,” Nino grinned up at him. Alya and Kagami nodded too.

“If you’d be alright with me doing it, Luka, I’d be happy to do it,” Adrien straightened and looked at the musician beside him.

“That would be incredible, man, if you could,” Luka pulled Adrien into a hug. “It would be even more incredible if you could play it for me.”

“Play it for you?” Adrien looked bewildered. Seeing the expression on Adrien’s face had Alya leaning forward and whispering something to Marinette and Kagami that dissolved all three girls into a fit of badly contained giggles.

“Piano isn’t really my forte but I’ve heard you play and you’re really good. Plus, how many times would I be able to say that the amazing Adrien Agreste helped me produce my song?” 

“Count me in,” Adrien and Luka recreated Nino and Adrien’s secret handshake, Nino watched them do it was a satisfied smile. It had taken Luka way too long to learn the handshake and seeing him properly execute it made Nino very proud. “Let’s make some beautiful music, my friend.”

Adrien looked at Marinette, who leaned her head back in Alya’s lap and asked the red-headed girl something. Kagami was shuffling the deck of cards they were playing snap with, her mind replaying Luka’s song over and over again, changing the language each time. The whole song first in French, then Spanish, then English, it all had the same meaning but she didn’t know if the meaning she’d prescribed to it was the one it was meant to give. Luka could see the cogs turning in Kagami’s mind and hoped that she’d ask him tonight what it meant, he wasn’t sure if she would because she was almost as unpredictable as she was predictable and that only made her even more confusingly unpredictable. God, he loved her so much.

~~~~~~~~~  
Mari had been carrying the number Chat had scribbled in her pocket all day, she hadn’t messaged it yet because she dissolved into a puddle of mush the minute she read the words ‘your boyfriend’ at the top of the torn piece of paper. She wasn’t happy that he’d written it on the edge of her maths homework but it was such a Chat Noir thing to do, to write it on a worksheet that she had to hand in the very next day. Whenever she thought of him, she’d slip her hand into her pocket and touch her fingers to the small scrap with a giddy smile.

Ducking into the bathroom before class started again after lunch, Marinette took out the slip of paper and took a deep breath. She entered the number provided into the contacts on her phone under the nickname ‘Furball’ and pressed the little message bubble that popped up as soon as she saved the contact. Her thumbs hovered over the keyboard on the screen as her mind tried to formulate a perfect greeting for her brand new boyfriend. The bathroom door thunked open, in her anxiety, Mari ducked into the stall furthest from the second entry door and locked the cubicle, sitting on top of the closed toilet lid and pulling her legs up underneath her.

“Sabrina?” Chloe sounded worried, her voice following the closed slam of the secondary door as footsteps thudded against the tile floor. “Sabrina!”

“Leave me alone, Chloe,” Sabrina hiccuped, her voice thick with emotion. “Leave me alone.”

Had Chloe done something to hurt Sabrina? If Chloe claimed to have changed, why would she turn against her best friend?

“I’m not leaving you alone, Sabby,” Chloe’s voice got closer and sweeter, calming. “It was a lot of info to tell you at once and now probably wasn’t the best time but I couldn’t keep it to myself anymore.”

“W-why tell me now, Chloe? Before we have to go into class?” Sabrina’s voice wobbled around the bathroom, Marinette felt incredibly unwelcome but knew that she’d only make things worse if she gave herself away. She didn’t feel right, sitting here and eavesdropping so she texted ‘Hey Chaton’ to Chat and set her phone to vibrate.

“Because I love you, Sabby,” Chloe sounded as sad as Sabrina did as the words left her lips. Marinette covered her mouth to hold in a gasp, Chloe was in love with Sabrina? If Chloe loved her romantically, like the tone of her voice hinted toward, then maybe this is what drove her to want to change. “It took me too long to realise it and if a right time wasn’t going to just appear, I’d have to make one. You make me a better person.”

“I-I….,” Sabrina couldn’t form a word. Mari heard Chloe shuffle closer to her best friend and the telltale rustle of clothing as Chloe wrapped her arms around the sobbing Sabrina.

“You don’t need to feel the same way, Sabby, but I needed you to know because if I didn’t, I was going to explode,”

“I do feel the same way,” Sabrina’s response was muffled by wherever she’d pressed her face in Chloe’s embrace. “I have for so long and I never thought you’d notice. I never thought you’d actually pay attention to me past my hero-worship for you.”

“I was a bitch to you and you didn’t deserve it. I don’t deserve you,” Chloe’s voice was infused with unshed tears. Mari’s phone buzzed in her hand, Chat had responded. ‘What’s crackalackin’, purr-incess?’

“I wanted you to leave me alone so I could fix my makeup, Chloe,” The tear choked voice of Sabrina released a hoarse laugh which Chloe eched.

“I’ll fix your makeup, Sab, but you know that I’m going to find you gorgeous even when your face is bright red from crying,” A thwack told Marinette that Sabrina had just slapped Chloe’s arm for the comment, Chloe’s laugh was belly deep and surprisingly pleasant to Mari’s ears.

‘Just trapped in a bathroom, what’s crackalacking with you?’ Mari typed back with a smile. The two girls beyond the stall started chattering as Chloe fixed Sabrina’s makeup.

‘Being bored to death at school, why’re you trapped in a bathroom?’ Chat’s response was incredibly quick.

‘I fell in, why else would I be trapped in a bathroom?’

‘What have I told you about being careful when you play in the bathroom, Mari?’ Chat accompanied the message with an eye roll emoji.

‘Don’t fall in unless you can press flush?’

‘Smart girl! You remembered!’ Marinette felt a chuckle rise in her throat but she immediately bit down on her hand as she heard Chloe zipping her makeup case closed and the two girls prepare to leave the bathroom.

‘What about school is boring you?’

‘The fact that we haven’t started learning yet and I’m currently sitting at my desk listening to the most annoying person ever talk at me,’

‘Poor kitty,’

‘Please, beautiful and strong Marinette, save this helpless kitty from his annoyance and boredom,’

Mari pressed her lips together in a smile as the bathroom doors closed, signalling that she was now the only one in the bathroom. She lowered her feet to the floor and unlocked the cubicle, leaning against the frame of the stall as she responded; ‘No can do, Chaton, I’ve got school too and I don’t even know where you go to school, so how can I save you anyway?’

‘Put yourself in danger?’

Marinette cracked up laughing. ‘Absolutely not! I’m not going to put myself in danger to get you out of school!’  
‘You mustn’t love me then,’ The text came with a crying emoji. Mari walked out of the bathroom, eyes still glued to her phone and made her way back to her classroom. Madame Bustier made no comment about Marinette walking up the stairs scrolling through her phone as she handed worksheets around the room, Mari walked around Adrien, who was scribbling something in his workbook, and took her seat with a small huff.

‘I do love you, silly kitty,’ She placed her phone down beside her pencil case and opened her own book. Adrien watched as Marinette’s brow scrunched from the equations Madame Bustier had pulled up on the projector. The worksheets made their way up to where they sat at the back of the classroom, Mari took one with a frown and rolled her eyes jokingly at Adrien who chuckled. His phone felt like a tonne of bricks in his pocket, the device had buzzed when Mari had sent her last message but he hadn’t had the chance to read it yet. He ached to know what she’d said to him after he’d teased her. Lila had been trying to talk to him when he’d been texting Marinette, the now platinum blonde swinging her booted feet as she sat on his desk and prattled. He’d given the occasional ‘uh huh’, ‘yeah’ and ‘cool’ when he felt inclined to but his eyes and complete attention remained glued to the phone in his hands. Lila hadn’t been impressed with his complete ignorance of her and had tried to pry the device from his hands twice in the time she’d gradually encroached further and further into his personal space. Chloe and Sabrina had come back into the classroom hand in hand, giggling, and Madame Bustier had asked everyone to return to their desks. Adrien shoved his phone in his pocket and watched the door as Marinette walked in, up the stairs, and to her seat.

Once Mari started working, Adrien sneakily pulled the phone from his pocket and gently pressed the on button. ‘I do love you, silly kitty’ glowed up at him from the illuminated screen, he glanced at Marinette as a smile curved across his face and his heart started beating 40 million times faster. He was so, so in love with her and she couldn’t even see it, as she chewed on the end of her pen Adrien wasn’t sure he’d ever seen anything more beautiful in his entire life. Oh, he was hopeless.

~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Duusuu hadn’t been lying about being able to find Tikki and Plagg but she also hadn’t been completely truthful. Once Kwamis bonded, they gained the ability to switch their auras off for anyone that wasn’t their bonded. Seeing as Tikki actively tried to stop Plagg from finding her, Duusuu wasn’t sure that she’d be able to track even the faintest remnants of the Ladybug Kwamis power; Plagg had a tendency to be absolutely useless but he was also incredibly bad at covering his own tracks so she hoped against hope that he hadn’t started using his meagre brain power in the last thousand or so years. The Peacock Kwami’s magic utilised sentiment, unlike Nooroo’s power which was based off emotions, and there was a slim chance that she could trace them though places that held importance to either of them.

Once she’d flew a considerable distance away from Nathalie’s office and made herself invisible, Duusuu had arched out her magic in as wide a radius as she could possibly could. She hadn’t seen Tikki or Plagg in so long that the attachment she had to both of them was nothing more than a gossamer thread. There was a strange aura around the Agreste Mansion though, the purple-black that Duusuu associated with Plagg was faintly filmed over the window of Adrien’s room and, for a reason she found both completely predictable, the kitchen pantry. Glancing around, the same purple-black aura seemed to waft around a balcony on top of a bakery in the distance; the top floor of the Eiffel tower, and the Franciose Dupont college. Tikki’s crimson seemed to sparkle dimly around the balcony, the Eiffel tower and the college as well as the carousel in the middle of a park of the Champs Elyeese. Well, they certainly had some awfully strange places they’d tacked sentiment to but judging by the ones they had in common, Duusuu decided to check the ones they had in common first.

They had sentiment associated places all over Paris too but they weren’t as strong or as mixed as the incredibly faint ones surrounding the bakery, Eiffel tower, and the school; as fast as Duusuu could float, she zoomed toward the college. The crimson and purple-black auras twined around her the closer she got; Duusuu flicked on her magic aura for the first time since she’d bonded with Nooroo. She sat on a gutter at the top of the school and waited in silent hope that at 2:47 on a Thursday afternoon Tikki and Plagg would be within the walls of College de Francoise Dupont with their guardians.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, my chapters don't have titles, sue me!


	9. Chapter 9

A tingling in the base of her spine pulled Tikki from the nap she was having in Marinette’s school bag. There was a Kwami in the area with their aura on full blast; they weren’t hiding, in fact, Tikki wondered if they were looking for someone. For another Kwami. Tikki pressed her find together in worry and felt down the bond she had to Plagg, who was currently eating his weight in cheese in Adrien’s satchel a few feet away. Before Tikki had known that Adrien was Chat Noir, she’d been actively ignoring his presence in Madame Bustier’s classroom, he annoyed her to no end and she would rather pretend that he hadn’t bonded to her than ask why the hell he was in the same classroom as her. Plagg hadn’t moved, and as far as Tikki could tell, hadn’t sent his aura careening out across Paris. She’d forced him to dampen it the first time she saw him after they were given to Marinette and Adrien; Tikki had practically slapped sense into Plagg saying that he didn’t know where Hawkmoth was and Nooroo’s fragile state could be very, very dangerous if the Butterfly Kwami caught his aura.

Plagg felt Tikki’s tug on the bond and yanked his side, drawing an angry huff from the Ladybug Kwami. She turned herself invisible and passed through the fabric of Marinette’s bag and the wooden floor beneath them, floating, unseen, through the glass window of the class below, Tikki followed the strong pulse of magic up to the roof of the school. Across the roof, a small lilac figure sat, playing with the feathers of her tail; Tikki hadn’t seen Duusuu in so long and she felt a joyous laugh bubble up in her tiny chest at the sight of her friend. At an incredible speed, Tikki charged at Duusuu and lifter the Peacock Kwami into the air, spinning her into a hug.

“T-Tikki?” Duusuu’s voice was strained from how tightly Tikki was holding her.

“I can’t believe you’re here, Duusuu!” Tikki released the Peacock Kwami and looked her over, making sure she was in good health. “How did you get away from Mayura? How did you get away from Hawkmoth?”

“It’s a story that will take a bit of explaining and I don’t have long, I need to get back to Mayura before Nooroo realises that I’m gone,” Duusuu grabbed Tikki’s fin and dragged her over to the gutter to sit beside her.

“Is Nooroo alright?” Tikki’s eyes widened at the sound of the Butterfly Kwami’s name. She hadn’t seen him in so long and he’d always been the most fragile out of all of them; his deep connection to the emotions of others meant that he was easily spooked, and stressed.

“As good as he can be with what’s happening,” Duusuu’s voice was sad. “He doesn’t like what Hawkmoth makes him do, he really doesn’t like having to use his power to hurt you and Plagg but he’s long past arguing. I’m all he’s got right now and the longer I’m gone, the more he worries that I won’t come home.”

“You bonded to him?”

“Yes, but I can’t tell you all about that right now, Tikki, I really don’t have much time,”

“Yes, alright, well, I’m happy for both of you, Duusuu, I know that there isn’t a better Kwami to take care of him and keep him stable than you,” Tikki took Duusuu’s fin in hers and spoke with earnest sincerity.

“N-Mayura and I want to get Nooroo away from Hawkmoth,” Tikki’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. Why would Mayura want to take the Butterfly Kwami away from Hawkmoth? Did Mayura want to become the reigning supervillain in Paris? “We realised that what we were doing was wrong and that it would be easier to stop Hawkmoth if there was someone on the inside.”

“But why, Duusuu? Why now?”

“She’s worried that Hawkmoth is going to endanger her son, Tikki, Mayura doesn’t want anything to happen to him and she’s already lost enough,”

“Why did she join Hawkmoth in the first place then?” Tikki was angry. This was too little, too late. Marinette and Adrien had risked their lives countless times against the villains utilising Nooroo and Duusuu’s powers; Mari had been battered and bruised and broken, she’d lied to her family and friends and sacrificed so much for someone barely verging on adulthood. Why would Mayura join Hawkmoth if her son was at risk?

“He made promises to her, promises to bring the person she loved back from the dead,” Duusuu had heard the anger in Tikki’s tone and had laced her own voice with urgency. “Mayura only just realised that bringing the woman she loved back to life wouldn’t help her son, but hurt him. He’s a fragile boy, I really don’t know him well but she talks about him a lot, and he’s already lost one mother, Mayura doesn’t want to tear him apart by bringing her back.”

Tikki replayed Duusuu’s words in her mind. Mayura thought that she was doing what was best for her son but she’d recently come to the conclusion that it wasn’t what he needed. “Why does Hawkmoth want to bring Mayura’s love back from the dead? What tie does he have to her?”

“M-Mayura’s son is not hers by blood, her beloved and Hawkmoth were married, the boy is theirs but Mayura loved him and raised him as her own. Hawkmoth neglected the boy and never gave him the family he deserved because he was too busy with work and now with bringing his wife back; Mayura knows the boy better than his own father does and she knows what the boy’s mother would want her to do. She wasn’t her son to be happy,”

“Who is Mayura, Duusuu?” Tikki gently squeezed her friend’s fin. As a Kwami with the power of creation, Tikki had a deep connection to life. The plants that grew around her and the animals that played, Tikki could feel the beautiful thrumming of their life force everywhere. She didn’t have the power to take it away but it was her job to preserve it. Plagg’s destructive powers tied him closer to death, thus they were yin and yang. He was also insufferably annoying. “Are you able to tell me? You don’t need to say who Hawkmoth is but if I can get Ladybug or Chat Noir in contact with her as a civilian, it will be so much easier to save Nooroo.”

Duusuu glanced at the horizon briefly. “Her real name is Nathalie, Nathalie Sancouer, she works as an assistant for Gabriel Agreste,”

“She works for Gabriel Agreste?” Tikki’s heart hammered against her chest. “I-,”

“Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth, Tikki, and he’s trying to bring his wife, Emilie, back to life,” Duusuu’s voice was low and urgent, a far cry from the high pitched, million miles an hour way she normally spoke. “Nathalie is trying to protect Adrien Agreste, he’s lost so much and he’s finally reaching a point where things are evening out. He’s happy, and Nathalie doesn’t want that taken from him if Emilie comes back. Nathalie knows that Emilie won’t forgive Gabriel for what he’s done to their son and that her reappearance will send Adrien spiralling.”

“I can’t believe it, Duusuu, and if it had been anyone else but you or Nooroo who said it, I would’ve accused them of lying. I-it makes sense though, Adrien has been without a mother for so long and so fragile, I can understand Gabriel wanting to bring her back but I understand Nathalie’s want to protect him too,” Tikki looked out over the rooftops of Paris and allowed her eyes to linger on the shining white of the Agreste Mansion in the distance.

“So you’re going to help?” Duusuu’s large eyes took up most of Tikki’s peripheral vision.

“Of course we are. Plagg doesn’t have a choice,”  
“Aw, geez, Sugarcube, you’re not even going to buy me dinner before signing me up for a dangerous adventure?” Plagg’s lazy voice drawled from behind them, immediately annoying the ever loving shit out of Tikki.

“Plagg!” Duusuu released Tikki’s fin and flew to the Cat Kwami, embracing him.

“You’re really bad at hiding, Dus,” Plagg looked absolutely thrilled to be making physical contact with someone. The grimace on his face and the annoyed twitching of his ears definitely gave away just how much he was loving Duusuu touching him. “Ya maybe wanna stop broadcasting your damn location before someone comes looking for us?”

“Who, exactly, would come looking for us, Plagg?” Tikki folded her fins across her chest and shot Plagg a glare. “Nooroo is locked up with Hawkmoth, Trixx and Wayzz are literally on our side, and the others are in the Miraculous box back at my guardian’s house.”

“I turned it on hoping to find one or both of you,” Duusuu released Plagg and floated between the Ladybug and Cat Kwamis, watching the angry gaze Tikki had Plagg trapped in.

“We haven’t seen you in, what? Maybe a thousand or so years, Dus, how the fuck did you find us?” Plagg didn’t break the staring contest he was having with Tikki as he addressed Duusuu.

“I traced your sentiment,” Duusuu floated between the two and glanced between them. “You have some really weird placed that you’ve marked as sentimental locations but I thought that checking here on a school day would be the best first option. Your sentimental auras were also a lot stronger here than the other places you’d both marked them at.”

“I forgot you could do that,” Plagg tried to look around Duusuu to make a face at Tikki, Duusuu floated directly in front of his face to stop him; drawing a dark laugh from Tikki.

“I haven’t seen you guys in a long time though so your auras were very faint, but coming here was my best bet. You said that Trixx and Wayzz are here too?”

“They are, their guardians are friends with ours,” Duusuu turned to face Tikki as she spoke, swiping her fin out to stop Plagg from floating around her and annoying the Ladybug further than he already had.

“Rena Rogue and Carapace,” Plagg nodded and tried to round Duusuu again, who stopped him by moving directly in front of him each time he changed positions.

“Do they all know who each other are?” Anxiety was rising in Duusuu, what if one of the guardians wouldn’t be able to help them? She couldn’t imagine anything worse than putting her friends, and her bonded, in danger because of the unpredictability of humans.

“Rena, Carapace and Chat all do. Ladybug knows who Rena and Carapace are, I don’t know if Rena and Carapace know who she is though,” Tikki played with her fins in her lap.

“Gees, Sugarcube, how many times are you gonna say ‘Rena Rouge’ and ‘Carapace’ in one sentence?” Tikki glowered at Plagg, who actually had the good sense to shrink back behind Duusuu to protect himself from the Ladybug Kwamis cutting gaze.

“A-...w-...would you be able to tell me who they are?” Duusuu’s anxiety was reaching boiling point, she now wasn’t sure if it was because of her terror surrounding Paris’ only hope or that Nooroo might be reaching out to find her.

Plagg and Tikki shared a look, one of the calmest ones Duusuu had seen them give each other in the past few million years that she’d known them. “No,” Tikki shook her head. “It’s too dangerous.”

“D-don’t you trust me, Tikki?” Duusuu’s eyes gleamed with tears. Plagg placed a fin gently on the Peacock Kwami’s thin shoulder.

“We do trust you, Dus, but it’s for the safety of our guardians. If Hawkmoth gets a hold of you and uses Nooroo to draw the truth from you, they could die,” Duusuu wasn’t used to Plagg actively providing physical contact. He wasn’t very touchy feely, he actually hated when anyone or anything touched him without permission. Duusuu was well aware that he hadn’t enjoyed the hug she gave him earlier but she hadn’t been able to stop herself. “They’ve got families and friends and lives, taking down Hawky is different than stripping some teenagers of their lives if they fail.”

“You have to understand, Duusuu, Ladybug is the best guardian I have ever had and I can’t betray her and put her in danger if we can’t get Nooroo away from Hawkmoth,” Tikki floated over to Duusuu and took the Kwami’s fins in her own, her large eyes pleading with her friend. “If we fail and Hawkmoth finds out, that’s the end of the line for Plagg and I. It’s the end of the line for Wayzz and Trixx and all our guardians too no matter how hard they fight.”

“I-I understand,” Duusuu looked between her two friends and nodded. “May-...Nathalie would want to keep them safe too if she knew that they were high school students.”

“I think she’d want to keep them safe even if they weren’t,” Tikki’s voice dropped volume as she reassured her friend. Looking to Plagg for assistance. “Tell her that Plagg and I will talk to Ladybug and Chat Noir. We’re going to get them to help, we’ll also talk to Wayzz and Trixx. I’ll also talk to Sass and Longg, they’re guardians are Viperion and Ryuko, who are also friends of our guardians.”

“Pollen? I know that Pollen has a guardian now?” Duusuu squeezed Tikki’s fin and glanced worriedly at Plagg.

“Pollen’s guardian is...temperamental, to say the least,” Plagg didn’t sound too happy as he spoke about Pollen’s guardian. “But Pol is back at Tikki’s place with the others.”

“I don’t understand what you mean by ‘the others’,” Tikki frowned and looked at Plagg again, briefly.

“Ladybug was able to restore the Miraculous temple in Nepal so there’s more than just our Miraculous box now, and yours and Nooroo’s, even though the rest of your box was destroyed,” 

“My-, Nooroo and my box are alive?”

“Yes, but we don’t know where they are, Dus,” Plagg had taken all the joking undercurrents out of his voice. Duusuu had never heard him so serious.

“We’ll find them, though, Duusuu, once you and Nooroo are safe. But in Plagg and my box, back at Ladybug’s house, has Mullo,” Tikki tipped her head like she was counting off the names in her mind. “Ziggy, Xuppu, Daizzi, Orikko, Barkk, Stompp, Kaalki, and Roaar.”

“I..I haven’t met any of them,” A shiny tear dripped over Duusuu’s cheek. “You weren’t all together when I saw you and Plagg last.”

“I know, Dus, but they’re good and you would like them a lot. Nooroo too,” Plagg put his fin on top of Tikki and Duusuu’s joined ones.

“I..I haven’t actually met Longg or Sass either,” Duusuu’s admission was sheepish.

“Them and their guardians are top notch, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” The end of day school bell run out across the campus, almost deafening the three Kwamis on the roof.

“You need to get back to Nathalie, Duusuu, you told me that you didn’t have much time and the longer we keep you here the more stressed Nooroo will get,” Tikki released Duusuu’s fin and pressed a kiss to her friend’s smooth cheek. “I’ll get Ladybug in contact with Nathalie and, if you need to speak to either of us,” Tikki gestured to herself and Plagg. “Send out a pulse and one of us will come to you. We cannot come if it’s at the Agreste Mansion though.” Plagg shot Tikki a weird look which Duusuu definitely didn’t miss, she didn’t understand what it meant but she knew better than to ask. “It’s too dangerous for either of us.”

“Okay, I understand,” Duusuu returned Tikki’s kiss by embracing the Ladybug Kwami and gently pecking her cheek. “Stay safe, both of you.”

“You know us, Dus, we always stay safe, safe is my middle name!” Duusuu chuckled through a sob as she turned to Plagg and gave him a kiss too.  
“Your middle name is Vladimir, Plagg, and it’s also your last name because we don’t have last names and you’re the idiot who decided that you need one,” Tikki sounded so weary.

“Yeah, Plagg ‘Safe’ Vladimir,” Plagg puffed his chest out proudly like that made total sense. Tikki shook her head. “You stay safe too, Dus, I don’t know what Sugarcube here would do if something terrible happened to you.”

“I’ll stay as safe as I can,” Duusuu was unexpectedly embraced by Plagg as she made her promise. She flew to Tikki and squeezed her friend one more time. “G-goodbye, you two.”

“Bye, Dus,”, “Goodbye,”, Tikki and Plagg’s farewells melted into one as Duusuu began to fly away. Suddenly, Duusuu was knocked into a spinning embrace by a zooming red figure.

“Give Nooroo a hug for us, Duusuu,” Tikki slowed their spin and looked into Duusuu’s eyes, tears of her own shining along the irises. “Don’t tell him that it’s from us but it would make me feel like he knew we were coming for him. We are coming for him, we’re going to save him and stop Hawkmoth from destroying Paris.”

“I will, Tikki, I’ll give him the biggest hug I can,” Duusuu tried to make her voice sound as strong as she possibly could.

“Congratulations on bonding with him, I’ve been waiting way too long to say that to you,” Tikki smiled brightly. “You two have been skirting around each other for millennia. I’m so happy for you.”

“Thank you...so much,” Duusuu squeezed Tikki and pulled away. “Catch you on the flip side, Tikki.”

Duusuu made herself invisible and, just like that, left Tikki floating in the middle of space a metre off the roof of Francoise Dupont with Plagg behind her, more silent than he ever had been in his entire existence. Tikki floated back to him and let Plagg hook his fin around her shoulders, pulling her into his side. Normally, she hated being this close to him, he was annoying and smelt like bad cheese but he made her feel safe and calm. Tikki would rather launch herself into the sun than admit to Plagg that she actually did love him, despite how much he annoyed her, and the parallel between Marinette and Adrien’s relationship and theirs was hilarious. Plagg kissed the side of Tikki’s head and rubber her arm.

“Dus is a strong gal, Sugarcube, don’t worry about her too much,” Tikki leant her head into Plagg’s embrace as the two of them watched the spot where Duusuu had disappeared. “What did you mean by ‘she needs to get back to Nathalie’, by the way?”

“Oh...I forgot that you hadn’t heard the beginning of that conversation,” Tikki looked up at him. “Nathalie is Mayura, Plagg, and she wants to stop Hawkmoth for Adrien.”  
“Ah, I heard that conversation,” Plagg squeezed Tikki into his side. ‘Between Adrien and Nathalie, he called her mum and thanked her for raising him. If I was in her place, that’d be a huge change of mind for me too.”

“A-adrien called her mum?” Tikki’s voice was laced with disbelief. “That’s why Duusuu called Adrien Nathalie’s son. She has been there for him since his mother disappeared, so I can understand how much him saying that would mean to her.”

“He deserves to be happy, Sugarcube, and Dus was right in saying that Emilie’s reappearance would tear him apart,” Tikki could feel Plagg nodding against her head.

“So you didn’t hear that Nathalie was Mayura but you heard why she wanted to stop Hawkmoth?” Tikki pulled out of Plagg’s grip slightly and looked up at him with slitted eyes.

“Nah, I did hear that she was Mayura but it was a good way to bring up Adrien calling Nathalie ‘mum’,” Plagg’s laugh was loud but not the mocking tenor that Tikki was so used to.

“You’re an asshole, Plagg,” Tikki pulled away fully and punched Plagg in the side with all her might, sending Plagg tumbling through the air, laughing.

“Should we get back to Adrien and Marinette? I mean, the bell went like 20 minutes ago and what’s the bet that they’ve both noticed that we’re missing and trying to avoid each other as they look for us?” Plagg stopped tumbling and looked at Tikki upside down, his ears moving slightly as he moved from side to side.

“The bet is very high that they’ve both noticed that we’re missing but I doubt he’s avoiding her as he looks for you, if anything, Adrien is trying to find me before she does so he can reveal that he knows that she’s Ladybug,”

“Adrien knows that she’s Ladybug?!” Plagg immediately flipped himself the right way up, his tail swaying in agitation. “How long has he known?”

“Uh….a while?” It was Tikki’s turn to shrink back, Plagg would never hurt her but she didn’t like when he raised his voice at her.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Sugarcube? I’ve been trying to get them together for ages,” Plagg immediately lowered his voice as he saw Tikki cower from him. “That makes me happy, so happy for him. He’s got a mum now and is closer to getting his girl.”

“They-they’re dating, Plagg,” Tikki floated closer to him and allowed him to wrap her into a hug again. “But she doesn’t know who he is yet, she’s dating Chat Noir and has asked him to wait until she asks him to reveal himself to her.”

“It won’t be long, Marinette is a curious girl, I really haven’t spent long with her but the time I did spend with her after we fought Reflekta and Reflekdoll was like being interrogated,” Tikki giggled, rubbing her head against Plagg’s pointed chin as he spoke.

“We should get back to them,” Tikki pulled out of his embrace and rocked gently in the air.

“Yeah, we really should,” They floated down to the roof. “She’ll be fine, Sugarcube, she’d stronger than you know.”

“Thanks, Plagg,” Tikki gave him a thin smile.

“You know I love you, Sugarcube, and that I’d never lie to you. If I didn’t think Dus could take care of herself, I would’ve gone with her. You know I would’ve,” Plagg placed a fin on Tikki’s cheek, his slitted green eyes glowing with such heartfelt sincerity, Tikki felt it light a fire in her chest.

“I know,” Tikki blinked slowly. “I love you too.”

She whispered the last part as she sunk through the roof and made herself invisible. They’d never been the most careful when meeting all over the school but the events of Kwami Buster had made them so much more cautious. Tikki followed her bond to Mari through the halls of the school as she grinned to herself. Several million years and a life bond but she’d never said those three words to him; he probably didn’t hear them but it didn’t take back the fact that she’d said them.

Plagg floated on top of the roof, his eyes blown wide and his head spinning. She loved him too. She’d finally said it. She loved him.

~~~~~~~~~~  
Kagami sat on her bed with her tablet balanced on her knees, the messages app open with Luka’s name at the top. For the last 15 minutes Luka had been writing her a message, the three dots appearing and bouncing within their bubble before disappearing, then reappearing. She was growing jittery.

The bubble disappeared and didn’t return. With a sigh, Kagami dumped her tablet on the bedspread beside her and smoothed out her skirt. With a sudden loud vibration, Kagami grabbed the tablet and looked at the glowing screen.

‘I like you’  
‘And I haven’t known how to tell you’  
‘I’m not scared of you rejecting me but I am scared of you never knowing’  
‘You are incredible, Echo, so so so incredible and I want you to know that’

Each text was sent in its own bubble, not the paragraph Kagami had been expecting.

‘I don’t know if you’ve read these but I really do like you’  
‘I wouldn’t tell you that I did if I didn’t’  
‘Please respond when you read these, I just need to know that you have seen them’

Her chest felt weirdly light, a white sparkling light danced on her eyelids as her eyes kept skipping over the words ‘I like you’.

A giddy smile broke across her face as she responded: ‘You’re pretty alright too, Strings’.

Kagami pressed send as she giggled at the stupid nickname she’d just come up with for him. The bubble appeared again then was replaced with a message in a few seconds.

‘Pretty alright? Pretty alright, Echo? You wound me’

Kagami: ‘That was my intention after all’  
Luka: ‘I just confessed to liking you and I’m pretty alright?’

Even though she couldn’t hear his voice, she knew he was joking around with her. Luka was such a happy go lucky guy and Kagami understood that he would never actually get mad at her and talk about it over text. Luka didn’t do arguments over text, he preferred calling or being in person, Kagami was actually surprised that he hadn’t called her to admit his feelings for her. Oh god, he had feelings for her. He-he liked her back...he’d written a song for her and allowed Nino to play it out loud knowing that Kagami would translate it. She flopped back on her bed pressing her lips into a wide smile.

Kagami: ‘Maybe you’re more than pretty alright’  
Luka: ‘What is more than alright miss Tsurugi?’

Luka knew that Kagami wasn’t a fan of bad grammar and he’d just gotten her to stop adding fullstops to the end of her text messages because he said it made her sound angry all the time. Her response, of course, had been “Well, I am angry all the time” but she’d relented.

Kagami: ‘Pretty attractive’  
Kagami: ‘Pretty talented’  
Kagami: ‘Pretty intelligent’  
Kagami: ‘Pretty funny’  
Kagami: ‘Pretty lucky’  
Luka: ‘Why am I pretty lucky?’  
Kagami: ‘I’m jealous of how awesome your girlfriend is’  
Luka: ‘My girlfriend?”  
Luka: ‘Did you just call yourself my girlfriend?’  
Luka: ‘Kagami’  
Luka: ‘Kagaaaamiiiii’  
Kagami: ‘Well, you won’t know until you ask me to be your girlfriend, or you can keep calling your left hand ‘babe’...?’

Laying on the couch in the living room of the houseboat, his guitar resting across his stomach, Luka let out a roaring laugh that was immediately shushed by Juleka, who was sitting at her computer scrolling through pictures from her last modelling shoot.

Luka: ‘Oh please, darling Echo, will you be my girlfriend?’  
Kagami: ‘Are you really going to ask me out over text, Couffaine?’  
Luka: ‘Shit, my bad,’

Kagami’s phone, which was sitting on her desk a metre or so away started to buzz. She picked it up and swiped answer call to Luka.

“Beautiful Kagami, your eyes are like pools of honey and your hair shines like midnight, your laugh is more intoxicating than any drug a human could create, would you please do me the honour of being my girlfriend?” There was a small bit of noise in the background of Luka’s call, the sound of waves lapping on the hull of the houseboat. Kagami stifled a laugh. “Echo? You there?”

“Well, Mr Couffaine, I’m going to have to read over your application and call your references to make sure that you’re fit for the job,” Kagami licked her lips, trying to keep her voice from cracking as the strength of the laugh growing in her chest edged toward overpowering her.

“Dammit, ‘Gami, you’re killing me,” Luka put on a fake wounded tone, pleading.

“I’ll call you back soon with my answer, Mr Couffaine,” Kagami immediately hung up and threw herself onto her bed. She released a loud, happy squeal into her pillow; feeling like a normal girl for the first time in her entire life. Her whole life had been pressing her feelings down and keeping them to herself but now she’d let them out. Kagami Tsurugi was so overwhelmingly happy that she was literally screaming into her silk covered pillow. Once her screams had died down and reduced to joyful giggles, Kagami picked up her phone and called Luka back.

“Ka-,” 

“Yes, I’ll be your girlfriend,” Kagami cut Luka off before he could finish saying her name. He let out a cheerful whoop and took the phone away from his year to let out a loud shout.

“God, Echo, never do that to me again,” Luka’s voice was mirthful but hoarse as he returned to the phone.

“I can’t promise that, Strings,” Kagami rolled onto her back and looked up at the white painted ceiling above her. 

“Strings?” Luka chuckled at the new name.

“That’s my nickname for you now, because you’re a guitar player,” She let out an awkward chuckle and felt her cheeks burn. “You don’t like it do you?”

“No, no, no, I don’t like it,” Kagami felt her heart sink. “I love it.”

“It’s not creative or anything, like yours,” 

“It’s perfect, like you,” Luka’s voice was soft and reassuring, sending Kagami’s heart soaring. “You really couldn’t have given me a nickname anymore...you. You have a tendency to be very literal and even hearing you call me ‘Strings’ is absolutely perfect.”

“I’m sorry,”

“Sorry for what?”

“Being so literal,” Kagami kicked her already untied sneakers off her feet and off the bed. 

“Don’t apologise for that,” Luka let out a thumping sigh like he’d just thrown himself onto a bed or a lounge. “It’s one of the many things I love about you.”

“Well, I’m glad you like it because I don’t think I can stop it,” Kagami wriggled her stocking covered feet against her bedsheet. 

“Good,” Luka imagined Kagami laying on her bed with her phone pressed to her ear as she spoke to him. Her short, inky hair splayed out on her pillow as her long fingers traced along the wrinkles in the sheets beneath her. The new couple fell into an easy conversation, complaining about the assignment Takayama sensei had assigned them to complete in German, laughing at each others jokes. Time drifting away in the sound of their voices.

~~~~~~~~~

Marinette was sitting on the top stair of the flight leading up to her classroom, chewing her already very short fingernails. When she’d slipped her pencil case into her school bag, she’d noticed that Tikki wasn’t in there. She’d pulled open her purse, the one that she kept slung over one shoulder and bouncing on the opposite hip, and moved around the small collection of things inside it, hoping that the Kwami had merely changed where she’d decided to have her nap.

Tikki wasn’t in Mari’s purse either, which sent Mari’s heart racing. Adrien had asked her what she was looking for and she’d immediately fallen into her old awkward way of speaking to him. Babbling about not being able to find her phone, Adrien had given her a cheeky smile and pointed out that it was in her hand which had turned her entire face neon red, sending her falling into a bookshelf and knocking several textbooks crashing to the floor. He’d helped her pick them up and put them back, of course, asking her questions about her plans for the weekend.

She tried not to think about Chat and how her curiosity had piqued when she’d returned to class and received a short message several minutes later. ‘I love you too’, her head had felt so light it could have lifted her off the ground and sent her crashing into the roof, she didn’t respond because she’d been too busy trying to hide her blush from Adrien who was paying a disturbing amount of attention to her today. Not that she didn’t enjoy being the center of Adrien Agreste’s attention but it made her think of Chat and how much she just wanted to chill in his company.

“Marinette?” Marinette whipped her head around at the sound of Tikki’s soft voice, looking for the Kwami. Tikki slowly regained her visibility.

“Tikki! I was so worried!” Mari reached her hands out, Tikki immediately took a seat in them and allowed Marinette to press a slightly shaky kiss to the top of her domed head. “Where were you?”

Tikki glanced around. “Can I tell you when we get home? I don’t feel that here is the safest place,” Mari nodded and clicked her purse open with one hand, gently slipping the Kwami into the soft bag. 

“Okay, we’ll be home soon, Tikki, then you have to tell me everything,” Picking up her school bag and slinging it over her left shoulder, Marinette walked down the winding stairs and out the front doors of the school. Nino was leaning on the wall beside the door once Marinette exited them, his headphones over his ears as he bobbed his head along to the music filtering through them. With a small wave and a grin that Nino returned with finger guns and a tongue click, Marinette pushed her earbuds into her ears and started playing one of Jagged Stone’s new songs; it wasn’t technically released yet but Jagged had given Mari an early copy of the album because she was, afterall, the best album and clothes designer he’d ever worked with. Against Marinette’s protests, Jagged had set up a savings account for Mari under her name and deposited the pay that she wouldn’t accept into it. After she’d turned 16, he’d been insistent on paying her for the work she did for him, Marinette had said that being able to work for him was payment enough but Jagged wouldn’t take that for an answer. She was several thousand dollars richer than she had been a few years ago now thanks to Uncle Jagged.

Humming along to the song, Mari thought of snuggling up with Chat tonight and telling him all about her day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
“‘Sup, Adrikins,” Plagg dropped through the ceiling and clunked onto the top shelf of Adrien’s metal locker.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Plagg,” Adrien clutched his heart. “You just scared the actual shit out of me.”

“Just how I like it,” Plagg rolled around on the shelf and looked up at Adrien with indifferent green eyes. “Got any cheese?”

“Of course I don’t have any cheese! You ate it all,” The Cat Kwami laughed maniacally.

“Huh, maybe I did,” Adrien shook his head and slammed his locker closed. Plagg materialised through the metal and floated next to Adrien’s ear, whining. “That’s not fair.”

“Get in the bag, Plagg,” Adrien held his bag open and shook it at the floating creature who gave him a disdainful grimace.

“Did you even notice that I was gone?” Plagg rolled around in the air, ducking away from Adrien in case the blonde boy tried to grab him and put him in the bag. Of course, Adrien knew that he couldn’t grab Plagg if Plagg didn’t want him to, so Adrien let out a weary sigh and sat on one of the wooden benches, glaring at his Kwami.

“Not until you thunked into my locker, I stopped keeping track of you since I learnt the extent that you’d go to for cheese,” Adrien slumped against the metal pole behind him that held the clothes hanging rack students would put their clothes on when they changed for physical education.

“Ouch,” Plagg floated over to Adrien in a corkscrew whirl. “Why so antsy?”

“I wanted to kiss her,” The teenager slammed his hand against his forehead, angrily, and groaned loudly. The groan morphing into a quiet scream before dying down.

“I’m guessing you mean Marinette?” A smile broke out on Plagg’s face. Adrien didn’t know that he knew about Marinette and Chat Noir being an item.

“Um...yeah...how did you know that?” Adrien raised his head and looked at the Kwami with suspiciously slitted eyes.

“A little Ladybug told me,” Plagg’s voice turned sing-song as he made yet another corkscrew loop in the air in front of Adrien’s face.

“Tikki told you that Mari and I are dating?” Adrien clenched his hands into fists on his knees.

“Well, you didn’t tell me, did ya?” Adrien flicked Plagg just enough to get an ‘oof’ from him. “Don’t worry ya little blonde head, pretty boy, Sugarcube wouldn’t tell Marinette that you know unless she asked first.”

“You are such a little shit sometimes, did you know that?”

“Tikki’s been telling me since the dawn of time,” Adrien grabbed his bag and began zipping it up. “Woah, woah, woah, you gonna let a passenger get in his seat first or is this one-a those unsafe carnival rides?”

“Nino is waiting for me outside so it’s either you jump in now or try to hitch a ride as I leave,” He held up the bag.

“I’m goin’, I’m goin’,” Plagg floated into the bag and nestled into the pocket made to hold Adrien’s phone or whatever. Adrien zipped the bag closed and hooked it over his shoulder none too gently, knockin one of his textbooks against Plagg who yelled at him loudly.

Adrien met Nino out the front, the DJ leaning against the wall playing on his phone as he listened to his music. Seeing Adrien’s shoes in his peripheral vision, Nino flipped his headphones off and paused his music.

“I just saw Mari head off home,” Nino ribbed Adrien and smirked at him. “You gonna go all cat-man and pounce?”

“Shut up, Speilberg,” Adrien rolled his eyes. “I’m going to go see her as Chat tonight.”

Nino’s smirk widened. “You gonna blow her mind?”

“Ew! Nino, no!” Adrien pushed Nino with a disgusted look on his face. “We’re taking it slow! She doesn’t even know who I am under the mask yet! Like hell we’re going to have intercourse.”

“Sex, Adrien, it’s called sex,” Nino laughed as the two boys started walking together toward the Agreste Mansion. It’d taken Adrien ages to convince Gabriel that he was completely fine to walk home from school and not be picked up; Gabriel had only relented as long as Adrien was still picked up after fencing along with Kagami, who would then have dinner with Adrien while her mother and Gabriel ate together.

“God, Nino, stop it,” Nino poked his tongue out at Adrien who rolled his eyes.

“So, was it weird today? Being so close to her and not being able to be boy-friendly?” 

“It was shit, absolute shit,” Adrien shook his golden head. “Do you know how hard is it to see her smile and not want to kiss her?”  
“No,” Adrien looked at Nino, confused. “Oi, she’s not my girlfriend, man. My girlfriend knows who I am and has no problems making out with me in public.”

“You’re so gross,”

“Says you, lover boy,” Adrien’s glare was pure venom. “Come on, you’ve been all ‘Mari this’, ‘Mari that’, ‘look at Mari’s hair today’, since we walked to school this morning! It’s been less than a day and she’s got you whipped.”

“I haven’t spoken about Mari once today,” Adrien let out a grumble.

“That’s a lie and you know it,” Nino bumped Adrien with his shoulder.

“Fine, okay, I might’ve spoken about her once,” Nino raised an unconvinced eyebrow. “Twice,” Nino continued to look unconvinced, quirking his eyebrow higher. “Three times?” The shake of Nino’s head told Adrien that there was no way he was going to believe that Adrien was not whipped. “Okay, I’ve spoken about her a lot.”

“Glad to see that you’re finally out of the denial stage, I’m so proud of you,” Nino ruffled Adrien’s hair was a grin, Adrien tried to duck away and crashed into a lamp post. They had to stop their walk as Nino absolutely lost it laughing and Adrien rubbed his head, grumpily. Once they resumed their walk, Nino kept poking fun at Adrien for the dilemma he’d brought upon himself.

Reaching the outside steps of Casa de Agreste, Nino waved Adrien goodbye and continued on his way home. Adrien pressed the buzzer next to the gigantic double oak doors and waited for a response.

“Agreste residence, how can I help you?” Nathalie’s voice filtered through the small speaker. Adrien pressed the return speech button below the bell he’d rung to get her attention.

“It’s me, Mum, I’m home from school,” Calling Nathalie mum was still new and ever so slightly awkward but the more he accepted her as his mum, she’d been the only motherly figure he’d ever had afterall, the happier he became.

“Hello, Adrien, the door is unlocked, I’m in my office if you need me. The door might be locked so just knock to let me know that you’re outside,” Nathalie sounded happy, out of breath for some reason, but happy.

“Thanks, Na-Mum,” Adrien grinned as he responded then he pushed one of the large doors open and walked into the cavernous foyer of the mansion. A large marble staircase took up most of the space, leading up to the next level and splitting off to different sides of the second level. Checkered black and white floors covered the space as meagre artwork and decor sat very spaced out around the room. Adrien walked up the stairs and made his way to his room, the back up phone in his pocket buzzed as he pushed his bedroom door open with his shoulder and dumped his bag in front of his closet. Leaning casually against the wall, Adrien dug his phone out of his pocket, the normal one not the back up. The normal phone had a couple of messages, which Adrien ignored and chucked onto his bed with very little worry for it landing safely. Digging deeper for the backup, Adrien’s heart skipped a beat.

The nickname ‘Buggababe’ shone on the screen above a text signalling that she’d sent him a picture. Ever so slightly worried about what she might’ve sent, Adrien opened up the phone and saw that Mari had sent him a meme. How did he get so damn lucky? She’d sent him a goddamn meme!

The meme was one of a lady being held back by another while she yelled at a white cat who looked bewildered. On the screaming lady were the words ‘Mari’ and on the bewildered white cat ‘Chat putting himself in danger’; she’d made it for him. Marinette had made him a meme and he couldn’t feel more loved if he tried.

Furball (Adrien was unaware that Mari’s contact for him was ‘Furball’): ‘Did you make that meme for me, purr-incess?’  
Buggababe: ‘Would you be mad if I didn’t?’  
Furball: ‘I’d feel less special if you didn’t’  
Buggababe: ‘Yes, silly kitty, I made it. No one else knows that we’re together so who else would have made it?’

Adrien felt the irony of her statement rock through his body. Others did know that they were together, Nino and Alya, two of her best friends, knew but she hadn’t even told them at school.

Buggababe: ‘Chaton, would you be mad at me if I told my best friend about us?’  
Furball: ‘The journalist or the fencer?’  
Buggababe: ‘Alya, the journalist. I’m not sure Kagami would know how to react’  
Furball: ‘By all means, shout it from the rooftops, Corazon, let all of Paris know’  
Buggababe: ‘I’ll take that as a yes’  
Furball: ‘So you’re going to shout it from the rooftops?’ Adrien attached a smirking emoji with that message. 

On the receiving end, across Paris, Mari snorted out a laugh and rolled over on her bed. Tikki said that she needed a little while before she told Marinette where she’d gone at school so Mari used that time to message Chat.

Buggababe: ‘No’  
Furball: ‘First you tell me that you wouldn’t endanger yourself to get me out of class and now you tell me that you’re not going to announce our love to the entire world? Rude’  
Buggababe: ‘You’re rude’  
Furball: ‘You’re rude’  
Buggababe: ‘You’re rude’  
Furball: ‘You’re cute’  
Buggababe: ‘Shut up’

Adrien badly wanted to send Mari a picture of him poking his tongue out but he remembered Alya’s threat and Tikki’s begged request to let Marinette ask him who he was in her own time. He couldn’t imagine anything worse than upsetting her balance.

Buggababe: ‘I’ve got to do something, I shouldn’t be too long but I won’t be able to text while I’m doing it’  
Furball: ‘Okay, don’t die’  
Buggababe: ‘Aren’t I supposed to say that to you? You’re the one with no sense of self preservation’  
Furball: ‘You wound me’  
Buggababe: ‘Try not to set Paris alight while I’m gone’  
Furball: ‘I’ve lasted nearly 18 years without burning anything to the ground, I think I can last an hour or so’  
Buggababe: ‘Just because you’ve almost lived to adulthood doesn’t mean you won’t accidentally destroy Paris’  
Furball: ‘Oh, ye of little faith’  
Buggababe: ‘If your boyfriend was a notorious idiot, you’d have little faith in him too!’  
Furball: ‘I guess I’m lucky then that my girlfriend is a gorgeous genius’  
Buggababe: ‘If you saw me at school, you’d eat your words’  
Buggababe: ‘Brb’  
Furball: ‘Miss you already’ [read 17:37]

Adrien grinned and headed off for a shower.

~~~~~~~  
“Tell me what happened, Tikki,” Marinette was cross-legged on her bed looking intently at the Kwami. Her phone had been tucked beneath her pillow and she’d assured Tikki that she would have her undivided attention.

“Duusuu came to see me,” Tikki spoke quietly and fidgeted with her fins.

“Duusuu? Duusuu is the Peacock Kwami, right? The one belonging to Mayura?” Mari saw the uncomfortable look on Tikki’s face as she used the word ‘belonging’. How could she forget that Kwamis liked belonging to people as much as humans did? Tikki and Plagg and Duusuu were all sentient and had a right to choose what happened to them, even if that right was limited; they weren’t objects. “The one working with Mayura?”

“Yes, Duusuu is bonded with Mayura,”

“Why would Mayura’s Kwami come looking for you?” Marinette toyed with the tasseled edge of a throw blanket she’d tossed carelessly over her bed this morning.

“Mayura doesn’t want to work with Hawkmoth anymore,” There was a pregnant silence between Tikki and Mari as the words hung in the air between them.

“How do you know that Duusuu isn’t lying to you, or playing with you?”

“I’ve known Duusuu for a long time, Marinette, I would have known if she was lying to me,”

“She could’ve changed, Tikki, you haven’t seen her in god knows how long,”

“Marinette, I’ve told you about Kwamis bonding, right?” Marinette nodded, confused as to why this meant anything right now. “Duusuu and Nooroo, the Peacock Kwami, bonded. They’re tied together. They are nothing like Plagg and I. I love Plagg to pieces but I would sell him to the devil for a stale corn chip and a ball of lint. Duusuu would rather die than let anything happen to Nooroo.”

“But something has already happened to him, he’s being used to make supervillains,” Marinette’s voice was taking a hard edge. Tikki was sweet but she was also an immortal being who should know better than to trust people who appeared out of the blue and dropped a too-good-to-be-true opportunity into her lap.

“Nooroo is the Kwami of emotion, just like I’m the Kwami of creation and Plagg is the Kwami of destruction. My ties to the life forces of this world are like Nooroo’s ties to the emotional auras of the people around him. Because he feels so much all the time, he’s in a near constant state of stress, he couldn’t fight back if he tried,” Tikki knew that her words weren’t exactly the truth. Duusuu had hinted that Nooroo had tried to fight back but had given up. “Duusuu is the Kwami of sentiment, because her magic stems from people’s love for things or places or people, she’s not as fragile as Nooroo but the thought of causing him more pain terrifies her. I could see it in her eyes.”

“Why now?”

Tikki rubbed her fins together and looked uncomfortably around the room, praying that Adrien would pick that exact moment to drop onto the balcony as Chat Noir and send her into a hiding place. “For you to understand why Mayura chose now, I think you might need to ask Chat to reveal himself. It would be best for you two to find out together, as civilians,”

“B-but that could put his family in danger...and mine…,” Mari’s bottom lip wobbled slightly. She was curious to see who he was under the mask and she had been planning to ask him to show her tonight but if Tikki thought it was better for them to discover Mayura’s identity together then she must be very dangerous. Mari couldn’t put Chat’s family in danger, she didn’t even know them.

“I know, Marinette, this is why I didn’t want to tell you when we were at school. But Mayura could be the only way of stopping Hawkmoth and saving both my friends,”

“Nooroo and Duusuu are your friends?”

“Kwamis aren’t inherently bad, it’s our guardians that choose to make us so. Nooroo didn’t want to help Hawkmoth create supervillains but he didn’t have a choice and when Duusuu bonded to him, she was willing to go to the ends of the universe to stay by his side. Mayura wouldn’t have willingly sent Duusuu to find Plagg and I if this was for malicious means,”

“I don’t understand what you mean by ‘willingly’,”

“If Duusuu hadn’t been sure that Mayura wanted to protect her and Nooroo and help them, Duusuu wouldn’t have left to find us. Sometimes, sentiment and intent go hand in hand, if Mayura intended to hurt them then I promise to you on my life, Marinette, that Duusuu would not have put herself in danger to find Plagg and I,”

“Okay,” Marinette rubbed her eye.

“Stop rubbing your eye, it’s not good for it,” Tikki flew forward and pulled Mari’s fist away. “So you’re going to ask Chat to reveal himself?”

“Yes, but you have to promise me that it’s going to be safer for him and I to know who each other are so we can take down Hawkmoth,”

“It’s safer for you two to know, I promise,” Tikki wrapped her arms around Marinette’s fist as much as she could and squeezed. “And we’ll have to reveal ourselves to Alya and Nino eventually too. We’re going to need all the help we can get if we want to stop Hawkmoth and save Nooroo.”

“I trust you, Tikki,” Marinette kissed Tikki’s head and spoke with the quiet sincerity that Tikki adored about her guardian. “I’ll ask him to come over.”

“Wasn’t he going to come over anyway?”

“Well, yes,” Marinette’s cheeks flared crimson. “But I want to prepare him so he doesn’t freak out when I ask.”

Tikki’s laugh was like tinkling bells. “Trust me, I don’t think you could freak him out if you tried,”


	10. Chapter 10

His towel hung over his damp hair, Adrien looked at a message on the screen of his spare phone. Water dripped off the tips of his dark, golden hair and onto the collar of his black shirt. He’d been in the middle of drying his hair and ignoring Plagg as the Kwami ate a roll of camembert bigger than he was as loudly and obnoxiously as he possibly could. Marinette had asked if he’d be alright revealing who he was beneath the mask to her tonight.

Weirdly, Adrien had thought she’d go longer than a day before asking but this was Marinette, the girl who interrogated Plagg after they beat Reflekdoll to get even the slightest hint as to who he was beneath the mask. He couldn’t be too surprised that her curiosity had gotten the better of her; he’d once seen her rifling through a bin for a note that Alya passed Nino and wouldn’t tell Mari what it said on it. Surprise, surprise, the note was about the party they were throwing Marinette for her birthday and both Alya and Nino knew better than to deposit that note where she could easily get to it, Adrien knew for a fact that Nino had taken the note home and shredded it so he must had dropped a dummy note into the bin that sent Marinette scrambling after it.

“What’s with the dumb look on your face?” Plagg took a break from his overtly sensual snacking to languidly roll his head back and look at Adrien with narrowly slitted eyes.

“What’s with the dumb look on your face?” After having listened to Plagg eat loudly for the last 40 minutes, Adrien’s quip came out harsher than he’d intended. Then again, Plagg had decided to follow him into the bathroom and eat his cheese so loudly that Adrien couldn’t hear his music, so maybe it was exactly as harsh as he intended.

“I asked first,” Plagg shoved a piece of cheese in his mouth and rolled his eyes.

“Marinette wants to see me,” Adrien held his phone in one had and rubbed the towel against his head with the other.

“You you, or Chat you?” Plagg spoke around a mouth full of camembert, some globs of the gooey cheese flying out of his disturbingly large mouth.

“Uh...both?” Adrien shrugged, sitting down on his lounge and depositing the phone on the coffee table before him. With both hands free, Adrien continued to dry his hair more roughly.

“Sooooo, she wants to see who’s under the mask, does she?” The look on Plagg’s face echoed the one on Nino’s from when they’d walked home. With a disgusted groan, Adrien looked away from the Kwami and stared at the dark screen of his phone, Plagg chucked almost maniacally behind him. “What’re you worried about?”

“What if I’m not what she expected?” Plagg floated over to Adrien and looked his guardian dead in the eye.

“That’s immediately what your mind goes to, Adrien?” Plagg crossed his fins and twisted in the air so he was looking at Adrien upside down.

“What if she was expecting someone else? What if she doesn’t actually like me?” Adrien pulled the towel off his head with a defeated sigh and looked at his bare feet on the wooden floor of his room.

“How dumb are you?” Adrien hadn’t heard Plagg sound more disdainful in his entire life. “Do you seriously think that Marinette ‘I would take a bullet for you, Adrien Agreste’ Dupain-Cheng would be angry at you being Chat Noir?”

“Uh...maybe,” Adrien’s voice cracked as the word ‘maybe’ left his lips.

“And she’s meant to be the clueless one,” Plagg huffed and slapped one of his fins against Adrien’s forehead until the teenager raised his head and batted him away. “She has been in love with you for a damn long time. God, Tikki complains about the pictures Marinette used to have of you stuck up all over her room.”

“Mari had pictures of me stuck up all over her room? I never saw them when I went over,” Adrien’s brow furrowed with confusion. If she liked him as Adrien, not just Chat, why didn’t she tell him?

“Because she hid them you, you moron,” Plagg started to whap Adrien’s face with his fins again. “Unlike you, Chat had time for her and went out of his way to see her. She would still love you, Adrien, if she knew you were Chat. I think it would mean a lot more to her if she found out that you were Chat Noir because it means that her crush, the great Adrien Agreste, has been saving her ass all this time.”

“I guess you’re right,” Plagg whapped Adrien’s face harder at that comment.

“I am always right, don’t forget it,” Adrien flicked Plagg away from him with his thumb and middle finger, the creature twisting through the air like a balloon with all its air being released. “You gonna go see her, or what?”

“Or what,” Adrien stood, carrying his towel over to the laundry hamper and dumping it in there. “Of course I’m going to see her, Plagg. Sh-should we get her some flowers?”

“Like I fucking know,” Plagg threw his fins in the air and floated back toward his plate of cheese indignantly. “I don’t know what human girls like! I barely know what Kwami girls like.”  
“I think Tikki likes it when you leave her alone,” Adrien could feel Plagg’s eyes staring daggers into the back of his head. It drew a cocky smirk from the teen as he faced the angrily buzzing creature.

“Sugarcube loves it when I hang out with her,”

“I highly doubt that,” Plagg huffed and blew a raspberry at Adrien. “You’re an immortal being and I’m a 17 year old kid but, somehow, you’re the childish one. I can’t fathom how you’ve lived this long.”

“Being irresistable,” The pure conviction in Plagg’s voice had Adrien laughing so hard he started choking. He couldn’t be serious.

“Ok, Plagg,” Adrien wheezed once his laughing induced coughing fit died down. “Claws out.”

Plagg was sucked into the ring on Adrien’s hand and began to send the classic Chat Noir catsuit solidifying across Adrien’s body. The suit always made adjustments for whenever Adrien wore it; when he’d shot up, the suit had accommodated it, and when he’d started to stop being scrawny and start being brawny, the suit changed its fit to highlight the toned muscles of his abdomen, arms and legs. With a grin, Adrien pushed one of the windows out of his room open and launched himself into the cooling twilight air of Paris.

~~~~~~~  
Marinette was pacing, chewing her nails. She’d sent the message to Chat ages ago and he hadn’t given her a reply. She knew that he’d been wanting to reveal who he was for ages but had something changed his mind? Did he already know what Tikki was going to tell them and thought it would be safer to dump her? So much doubt and worry clouded in Marinette’s mind, doubling the speed of her pacing and tripling the speed of her heart beat. A gentle rap on the curtain covered doors leading out to Mari’s balcony told her that her cat in shining armour had arrived.

Trying to steady her breath, Mari pushed the door open and looked at the black leather clad boy grinning adorably in front of her. Without a word but with a tiny bow, Chat produced a bouquet of assorted flowers and held them out to her with a sincere, cheeky smile.

“For you,” He said as Marinette took the paper wrapped bouquet in her hands and gazed at him with huge, wonder filled eyes. “May I come in, princesa?”

“Yes,” Mari’s voice was light, breathy, as she stepped out of his way with her stunning blue eyes glued to the flowers in her arms. “W-where did you get these?”

“A cat doesn’t like to give away his secrets,” Adrien winked at her and pressed a long, claw tipped finger to his smirking lips. The bravado was a facade to hide how nervous he was. Tikki said that Marinette liked him and Plagg said it too but what if she didn’t love him? He’d also grabbed the bouquet from a florist who was closing late, he’d given the poor man a lot of money for his trouble and said that the man was more than welcome to tell everyone that Chat Noir had bought flowers from his shop. The owner looked like he was on the verge of tears as Chat disappeared into the night. “But there is one secret I’d be happy to give away.”

Marinette placed the flowers gently on her desk and exhaled as calmly as she could. This was nerve wracking. What if he hated her once he found out that she was Ladybug? What if everything changed? Oh god, what if this was a bad idea? Her cheeks began to turn and tears pricked her eyes. Chat walked forward and pulled Mari into his arms as she pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes to stop herself from crying.

“Are you scared, corazon?” Chat’s voice was soft as his hand gently stroked her loosely ponytailed hair. Marinette gave a watery nod into his chest and pressed herself closer to him. “I’m scared too.”

“W-why are you scared?” Marinette pulled away slightly and looked into his green eyes with a wobbling bottom lip.

“I’m scared that you won’t like who I am underneath my mask,” He was completely sincere. He had no reason to lie to her and she was as scared as he was for this reveal. Chat pressed a gentle kiss to Mari’s forehead.

“If I can love you with the mask, why can’t I love you without it?” She blinked, her dark lashes feathering across her cheeks as she did, silvery tears shone between the thick fibres.

“Because fear is irrational,” He pressed her back against his chest, squeezing her tightly. If something did happen and they fell apart after this, he wanted to hold her properly. He needed to imprint how it felt to have her in his arms into his soul. “Are you ready?”

“C-can you keep holding me while you do it...so..so I can look at you when I let go and know that it’s still my Chaton?” Adrien melted into her as her wobbly voice released the muffled request. His heart pounded with overwhelming love for the girl in his arms, only she would need to be holding him to know that it’s him and only for her would be oblige.

“Of course,” Pressing one final kiss to Mari’s head as Chat Noir, he slid his hands down around her waist and whispered; “Plagg, claws in,” into her ear. She stiffened as the suit melted away and where she had once been touching leather, she was now touching either golden skin or expensive fabric. Mari wound her hands into the soft black cotton of his shirt as she felt her forehead make contact with the very warm skin of his neck. “Are you ready for me to let go?”

“Yes…,” Adrien released her and stepped back. Mari had squished her eyes closed, her hands still fisted into his shirt. He released a small laugh and put his hands over hers. The feel of his bare skin on hers felt so strange, she knew that whoever was standing before her now was still Chat but she didn’t know if she was ready.

“Open your eyes, Buggaboo,” At the sound of her cooed nickname, Marinette’s eyes shot open and she fell to her ass on the floor. A hand extended itself to her, long fingers with perfectly shaped nails, a silver ring with a faint engraving of a cats paw, a faded friendship bracelet knotted with green and orange and red and blue; looking up the arm her eyes met the curve of his bicep and the strong line of his jaw. Jumping her gaze to his face, blue eyes met green and a goofy smile broke across Adrien Agreste’s face.

“Ad-...Adrien?” Her words came out choked. Adrien was Chat Noir...and he’d called her Buggaboo? H-he knew that she was Ladybug?

“It’s me,” He decided to kneel down on the floor in front of her and take her hands in his own. “It’s me, Mari, I’m Chat Noir.”

“I don’t know...I don’t know how I didn’t guess it…,” Her voice was disbelieving and her eyes were still glued to his, wide and uncertain for the first time in a long time. “A..a-and you know that I..that I’m…”

“Ladybug,” Squeezing her hand, he supplied Marinette a reassuring smile. “I don’t know how I’ve been so lucky to have the most selfless girl in Paris to call my own.”

“How long?” Her voice wobbled but a small smile started to creep across her bitten lips.

“Since I put you to bed all those months ago, I had a little encounter with Tikki,” Hearing her name, the Ladybug Kwami came zooming out of her hiding place and was immediately pulled into an embrace by Plagg. “She told me not to force you to see who I was until you were ready.”

“She’s the one who convinced me to ask you to do it tonight,” Mari shot a grumpy look at her Kwami who was struggling out of Plagg’s grip with no avail. “It’s not like I wasn’t going to ask you anyway.”

“Well, I’m glad you did because today was so damn hard, Mari,” He released one of Marinette’s hands to run his fingers through his wavy hair.

“What do you mean?” She knew what he meant, judging by how calm he was and the shining look in his eyes, she knew exactly what he was talking about.

“I wanted to kiss you so many times today,” He gave her a sheepish grin. “Every single time you laughed or smiled or breathed, I just wanted to scream that I loved you and I wanted to hold your hand.”

Marinette placed her hand on Adrien’s cheek and wove her fingers into the silken strands of his hair. He’d let it grow out recently, hoping that it would make an easier transition between Chat and Adrien when he finally revealed himself. Of course, the suit had made adjustments for how Adrien had wanted to look, deciding not to make his hair longer when he transformed like it usually did.

“You messaged me when you were at school but you hadn’t given me your phone number,” She stroked the pad of her thumb across his cheek, Adrien let out a long purr. 

“Backup phone,” Adrien pulled the backup phone out of his jeans pocket. He unlocked it and showed Mari the two contacts on it, one was the number Master Fu had used and the other was Marinette’s. 

“Buggababe?” The tears that had shone in her eyes were gone now, a radiant happiness pulsing off the two. Tikki stopped struggling against Plagg after he whispered to her to let them have this moment, before they had to break the news to them they had to let Adrien and Marinette be happy.

“Y’know how I call you Buggaboo?” He leant into Mari’s careful stroking of his cheek. “Well, since you’re my girlfriend now, you’re my Buggababe.”

“Who said anything about girlfriend, Adrien Agreste?” She scrunched up her nose as she teased him and pinched the skin of his cheek slightly.

“But you are my girlfriend,” The confused look on Adrien’s face was absolutely adorable. 

“Technically, I’m Chat Noir’s girlfriend,” She tipped her head and smirked at him, poking her tongue out slightly. “No one ever said anything about being Adrien Agreste’s girlfriend.”

“Why’re you being so mean to me, Mari?” Adrien dropped the spare phone and picked Marinette up, securing her in his lap. 

“Well, I am Chat Noir’s girlfriend and if Adrien Agreste wants the same treatment, he’s going to have to ask,” She sung into his neck, both her hands were free now as she snuggled into the warmth of the boy holding her. Tracing a fingertip over the ridges of his chest hidden beneath his plain black shirt, Marinette inhaled the smell of his shampoo and deodorant.

“If that’s the case,” Adrien pushed Marinette out of his lap, earning a giggling squeal from her. He stood and walked toward the balcony doors, his back to her. “I guess Adrien Agreste is going to have to go home.”

“Get back here,” Mari launched herself off the floor and wrapped her arms around his neck, locking her ankles around his slim waist.   
“But it would be horrible of me to stay here with Chat Noir’s girlfriend and not my own,” He wrapped his warm hands around her calves and walked them over to the bed. ‘Unless Chat Noir’s girlfriend would like to become mine?”

“Of course she’d like to become yours,” Mari breathed into his ear before he dropped back onto the bed, crushing her beneath his weight. This was a far cry from the interaction they’d had last night, which had been all soft touches and stolen kisses, he’d gone out of his way not to collapse onto her when he’d carried her over to the daybed. “Oh my god, Adrien, what do you eat?”

“Bricks,” Adrien arched his back, still holding Mari’s calves so she couldn’t wiggle out from underneath him.

“At least you’ve got a good amount of iron in your diet,” She tried to flip him off her but she wouldn’t let go, chuckling loudly. “Are you going to ask me out or what?”

“Or what!” Both of them whipped their heads to look at Plagg who was then dragged away by an angry Tikki as she slapped one of her fins over his mouth.

Marinette giggled, the sound a lullaby to Adrien’s ears and heart. “Would you like to be my girlfriend, Marinette Dupain-Cheng a.k.a Ladybug?”

“I’m going to have to ask Chat Noir if it’s alright with him first,” The soft pads of Mari’s fingers found the bare skin of Adrien’s waist, his shirt having ridden up from her legs being wrapped him. She started to tickle him, his body arching and rocking as he laughed and tried to make her stop. “Would it be alright with you, Chat, if I started dating Adrien Agreste?”

Adrien was choked with laughs, unable to pull away from Mari as she retaliated to his heavy weight dropped atop her. “Y-y….yes, I’d be...r-r-really happy for y-you two,” She stopped tickling him, Adrien rolled off her and laid beside her in the bed.

“Then you have your answer, Chaton,” Mari rolled onto her side and kissed Adrien’s cheek. Adrien suddenly glanced at the trapdoor leading down to Marinette’s parents apartment. Noticing the glance and realising that she’d never told Adrien that her parents were out, she quickly set his mind at ease. “Maman and Papa are out having dinner with Grandpapa and Grandmama, they finally repaired ties. Grandpapa wasn’t very happy when Papa married Maman so I hope all goes well because I’m not sure what would happen if it didn’t.”

“I’m glad that I get you all to myself,” Adrien brushed her fringe behind her ear and smiled softly up at her. Marinette kissed his lips with a sweet smile. “What did I do to deserve you?”

“Maybe the universe just loves you, Kitty Cat,” Mari rubbed her nose against his, her eyes closed as his memorised the sound of her happy hums.  
“Maybe it does,” Her eyelashes brushed his as she blinked open. “Maybe you love me.”

“Maybe I do,” Marinette kissed him again. When she tried to pull away, Adrien slid his hand to the back of her neck and followed her, keeping their lips pressed together. She let out yet another happy hum as his long pianists fingers tangled into her soft, dark hair, the strands softer than anything he’d ever held.

“Marinette? Adrien?” The teenagers pulled away from each other as Tikki’s worried voice sliced through the almost silent room. 

“Oh, I forgot,” Marinette sat up, glancing between Tikki and Adrien. “Tikki had something that she needed to tell us and she wanted to do it when we were together.”

Adrien sat up and leaned against the wall to the side of Mari’s bed, pulling her into his lap between his opened legs.

“Adrien, you’re not wearing shoes,” His arms were securely wrapped around her waist, his chin resting on her shoulder. Mari pointed at his bare feet and bumped her head against his.

“I must’ve been so excited to see you that I forgot to put some on,” He bumped her back, his normal phone buzzed faintly in his pocket, drawing a quizzical look from Mari. “I’m not going to check it until I get home,” Adrien pressed a kiss to Mari’s neck. “I’m here with you and I intend to focus on you.”

“Alright, we need to focus,” Tikki floated in front of the two of them, Marinette lowered her hand and twined her fingers with Adrien’s over her stomach. “This might be some...terrible news.”

“Don’t freak the happy couple out, Sugarcube, just tell ‘em,” Plagg floated up on top of Tikki and balanced the back of his head on the crown of hers. Tikki protested.

“Okay, okay, Plagg, get off me,” Plagg did. “Thank you. I told Marinette earlier today that Duusuu came to see Plagg and I.”

“Duusuu?” Adrien raised his head and looked at Mari, who nodded. “Duusuu is the Peacock Kwami, right?”

“Yes, Duusuu is bonded with Mayura,” Tikki started to slide her fins together anxiously, looking to Plagg for support, which he didn’t provide. 

“Why would Mayura’s Kwami come and speak to you?” Mari shushed Adrien who just furrowed his brow and grimaced.

“Because Mayura doesn’t want to help Hawkmoth anymore, she wants to stop him,” Adrien opened his mouth to speak, he didn’t know that Mari had already asked all these questions but he closed his mouth after she gently smacked his hand. “Duusuu told us who Hawkmoth and Mayura are.”

“You didn’t say that earlier, Tikki,” The room was so silent they could have heard a pin drop.

“That’s why I wanted you two here together and with no secrets between you. This is going to be some...some potentially scary information,” Plagg floated over to Tikki and took one of her fins, trying to calm her down. 

“You can do it, Sugarcube,” Plagg squeezed Tikki’s fin.

“Who are they, Tikki?” Adrien asked as softly as he could, his heart hammering against Marinette’s back as she rubbed her thumb up and down his wrist.

Tikki glanced at Plagg, who gave her a nod, and exhaled shakily. “M-Mayura is Nathalie, Adrien,”

The force of Adrien’s head shooting upwards caused him to smack Marinette in the jaw, his eyes were wide and his pupils were dilated with confusion. Mari gently rubbed her jaw but didn’t say anything to him; this was a shock to her too but Nathalie was the woman who raised him, she was is mother in all aspects of the word other than by blood. 

“Nathalie is Mayura? A-am I the reason why she changed her mind?” Tikki nodded sombrely. “D-does that mean that someone working f-for my dad is Hawkmoth?”

Mari gently squeezed Adrien’s hand to reassure him that she was there, that she wasn’t going anywhere and that she understood that he was hurting. He sunk his head back into Marinette’s neck, a wetness pressing warmly against her skin.

“It’s worse than that, Adrien,” Plagg watched his guardian collapse into his girlfriend, this wasn’t going to be a nice talk but Plagg had insisted that Tikki give them time to associate tonight with loving each other instead of Adrien’s world falling apart around him.

“H-how could it be worse?” Adrien’s lips moved against Marinette’s skin, she moved a hand up into his hair and massaged his scalp. “It could only be worse if...if…,”

“Hawkmoth was your dad,” Marinette finished for him, looking at Tikki.

“Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth,” Adrien squeezed Mari tighter, tears sliding down the column of her neck and pooling in the dip of her collarbone. Tikki felt tears well in her eyes, at least he had Marinette.  
“W...w-why is he doing this?” Adrien’s hiccup shook Mari’s body.

“He wants to bring your mother back, Adrien, that’s all Duusuu told me,” Tikki floated down to the surface of the bed, Plagg trailing behind her still holding her fin. “W-when you accepted Nathalie as your mother, she realised that she couldn’t keep helping him.”

Marinette hummed reassurances to Adrien as Tikki spoke, Plagg uncharacteristically quiet.

“Nathalie loves your mother, Adrien, she loves her more than your father does and she knows that Emilie wouldn’t want this,” Tikki placed her free fin on the top of Adrien’s bare foot, large tears dropping from her eyes. “She said that Emilie wouldn’t forgive your father for what he did to bring her back, or the way that he neglected you. Nathalie also said that she couldn’t see you torn apart by Emilie’s reappearance and subsequent reaction to what Gabriel did.”

A sob shook Adrien’s body as more tears slid down Marinette’s neck and into her shirt. She began to gently rock him; such a good night had turned so bad in a very short time.

“She’s doing it for you, man,” Plagg broke his silence. “I heard when you called her Mum and I saw how happy she was when you called her that. If I was the person who raised my childhood sweetheart’s kid after her hubby put her in the ground, I’d have a change of heart and want to save the world for the kid too.”

Marinette tipped her head slightly, Adrien had whispered a question to her. With a frown she asked him to say it again.

“Adrien wants to know of Nathalie knows that he’s Chat Noir,” Mari squeezed his wrist gently, he let go of his forearm and tangled his fingers into hers. She pressed a kiss to his temple.

“No, she doesn’t,” For the first time since Tikki had started telling them about her talk with Duusuu, her voice didn’t wobble. “She asked who you two were but I didn’t tell her, I said that it was too dangerous and that we’d get in contact with Nathalie when you were ready.”

“Thank you, Tikki,” Adrien’s voice was thin and reedy as he raised his head slightly and met Tikki’s gaze. His eyes were red and bloodshot, tears stained his lashes and traced silver tracks down his cheeks as well as Marinette’s neck. “Thank you for not telling her.”

“It’s alright, Adrien, just like you revealing yourself to Marinette, I wanted you to be ready to reveal yourself to Nathalie,” Adrien put his face back in Mari’s shoulder and shook his head, tears were tracking slowly down Marinette’s cheeks and dripping into Adrien’s golden hair. Small dark spots in the fine waves of his hair gave away how many silent tears she had shed while forcing herself to remain composed for him. Adrien hiccupped.

“Sh-she loved my Maman,” Adrien kept shaking his head, Marinette pressed one of her hands into his temple to stop him from cracking his skull against her jaw again. “And she..she wants to defy my father..f-for me?”

“Yes, Chaton,” Mari spoke softly into Adrien’s hair, his sobs quieted as she spoke to him in soothing tones. “You accepted her as your mother and mothers should always want to protect their children. Nathalie was the mother you thought you didn’t have, I can’t believe I saw that before you did,” She released a small, tear clogged laugh. “You have a family, Adrien, and it’s so much more than your asshole of a dad.”

“Did you just call my dad an asshole, Marinette Dupain-Cheng?” He raised his red, tear tracked face and looked up at Mari with a wobbling smile. She could tell that the smile was genuine, but that he was still hurting so he couldn’t make it as bright as he normally did. “Did you call world famed fashion designer and billionaire, Gabriel Agreste, an asshole?”

“Yes, I think I did,” Marinette feigned surprise and shot him a wide, dimpled smile. “It doesn’t matter how good his designs are if he can’t spend time with his own son. His own son, for fucks sake.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you swear,” Adrien pressed his nose into Marinette’s hair, her ponytail now completely gone and leaving her hair loose around her shoulders. She nudged up into his embrace with her shoulder, earning a kiss to her head from him.

“You have a family, Adrien,” She nudged him again as she whispered to him. Tikki and Plagg looked at each other, the Cat Kwami shrugging. Maybe this went better than planned, did Tikki even have a plan? She probably did, it was Tikki afterall, but her complete loss of composure had Plagg thinking that maybe she had no clue what she was doing. Marinette started to sway in Adrien’s arms. “You have Nathalie, you have Nino, and Alya, and Kagami. You have Plagg, and Tikki. You have my Maman and Papa, they love you a lot, you know. And you have me.”

Adrien smiled, the corners of his lips still twitching as his heart still cracked from finding out what his absent father had been doing in all the time he’d been absent.

“I have you,” He rested his temple against the crown of her head. “I’m so lucky to have you.”

“If I ever see your dad in person again, I don’t care if we’ve defeated him or not, I am going to kick him so hard in the balls he might develop a nut allergy,” Mari pulled out of his arms to turn and meet his eyes as she made her promise to him. Her eyes were hard, promising Adrien that she would not hold back even if she was fighting her fashion idol. He meant more to her than he could possibly fathom. Adrien laughed, a deep and rich laugh, before pulling Marinette into a deep kiss and pressing their foreheads together. She twisted in his arms and rested her back against his chest again, tapping her fingers along the goosebumped skin of his right arm. “We’re going to have to tell Alya and Nino that I’m Ladybug. Oh my god, Alya is going to lose her mind when she finds out that I’m Ladybug.”

“They...uh...they kinda already know,” Adrien’s voice gradually got quieter as he trailed the admission off. 

“Oh, good,” Marinette smiled and wiggled into a comfortable position in his arms. “Wait WHAT?!”

She shot forward and out of his embrace, flinging herself off the bed. Plagg and Tikki had barely moved in time not to be hit by a Marinette cannonball.

“How do they fucking know, Adrien?” Mari’s eyes were wider than he’d ever seen them before and she was pulling at her dark hair, pacing. “How on Gods quickly dying once green earth do they know and how did Alya keep it to herself?”

“Mari, calm down,” Adrien crawled forward on the bed and grabbed Marinette’s wrists, halting her pacing. “Alya guessed that I was Chat and then let it slip that Nino was Carapace and then I accidentally let it slip that you were Ladybug. They only found out last night, so it hasn’t been anything major and I honestly have no clue how Alya kept it to herself.”

Marinette’s breathing evened out as she eased onto the bed in front of Adrien. “Oh-okay,” She took one of Adrien’s hands and slotted their fingers together. “I wanna tell them.”

“Did you see the message Nino sent you on the Yoyo last night?” 

“Uh, no,” Mari looked really confused as Adrien tapped his fingers against the back of her hand. “Why-...,” Marinette paused, her eyes sweeping back and forth as she processed something. “You skipped out on your patrol, didn’t you?” She grinned at him. “You skipped out on your patrol to come and see me and you needed Nino to cover for you but Alya was already there.”

“Alya wasn’t already there, I asked her to meet me too so I could convince one of them to cover for me,” Mari flicked his forehead. 

“Do we wanna get suited up and get the gang together?” She lifted his wrist, the one with his watch on it and tapped the face. Alya would be patrolling tonight, and Marinette would be patrolling tomorrow night, so it was likely that Alya was already out and not finished her second round yet. If Nino had joined her last night, then he’d probably joined her tonight. 

“If you think that’d be best?” Adrien squeezed Mari’s hand. 

“I want to ask you something first,” Adrien inclined his head to indicate to Marinette that he was listening. “I want to give the Snake and Dragon miraculouses to Luka and Kagami permanently.”

“Okay,” Adrien gave a half smile and shrugged.

“Okay?” 

“Yeah, I think it’d be cool to have some extra hands on deck,” He started rubbing the back of her hand again. “We should give Pollen back to Chloe.”

Marinette was silent for a moment, her mouth forming words that never created sound. “I agree,” Adrien raised his eyebrows. “She was great as Queen Bee.”

“I didn’t expect you to take that so well,” He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed their joined fingers. “What changed?”

“I overheard a conversation between Chloe and Sabrina today, and it changed my view on Chloe,”

“She finally asked Sabrina out, didn’t she?” Marinette blinked slowly.

“Finally?” Adrien puffed out a laugh.

“That’s why she was stuck to me during the holidays, she wanted advice on how to ask Sabrina out,” It was Marinette’s turn to laugh.

“Did you have much advice to give?” She stifled her giggles with the back of her free hand.

“Unsurprisingly, no, I’ve never asked anyone out in my entire life,” Marinette’s eyes bulged open as her giggles died down.

“Am I your first girlfriend, Adrien Agreste?” She sounded so disbelieving.

“Yeah,” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Am I your first boyfriend?”

Marinette’s face went bright red, she let go of Adrien’s hands and shoved him back on the bed so he couldn’t see how embarrassed she was.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Adrien propped himself up on his elbows to find Mari hiding her face in her hands. “Hey, don’t hide your face,” He sat up and pried her hands away from her crimson cheeks. “I love when you blush, it makes your freckles stand out so much more.” Her cheeks glowed an even darker red. “You’re so beautiful, Mari.” Adrien kissed her warm cheek.

“Oi, lovebirds, are we gonna get groovin’ or be mushy all night? I’ve got a nice wheel of cheese callin’ my name back at Casa de Agreste,” Adrien and Marinette pulled away from each other and looked at their Kwamis.   
“He’s right,” Adrien shrugged, pulling Mari off the bed. “You might want to put something other than pjs on if we’re going to unsuit for the gang.”

“You might want to put some shoes on,” Mari poked her tongue out at him as she walked to her dresser and pulled a pair of jeans out of it. Picking a soft grey, cotton shirt and a bra, Marinette dug the miraculous box out of her underwear drawer and put the Bee, Snake and Dragon miraculouses on top of the dresser. “Eyes to yourself while I change, Agreste.”

Her voice had taken the confident Ladybug tone that he adored so much, raising his hands in submission he grinned and turned around. Marinette slipped behind her changing screen and swapped her pyjamas out for her normal clothes.

“I’m going to have to go barefoot because I don’t have any shoes,” The sound of Marinette changing, the small thuds and rustling of clothes, had all the hair on his body standing ramrod straight. She laughed.

“Poor baby, you’re going to get cold feet,” Mari’s footfalls walking toward him had him turning around to face her. Marinette dumped the bundle of pyjama clothes on her bed and pulled a pair of sneakers out from a plastic bucket underneath. Adrien hadn’t seen her grab socks but she pulled the sneakers on over the top of some pale pink socks with lace fringing the top.

“Never when I’m with you,” He helped her to her feet. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” The two faced each other and took a deep breath in. “Tikki-,” “Plagg-,” “Spots on-,” “Claws out-,”

They transformed, looking at each other. Marinette’s suit was different now, though. It looked a bit like the suit Adrien had worn as Mister Bug, but there was padded armour around her shoulders, sides, breasts and the sides of her legs. Adrien’s Chat Noir suit hadn’t changed, of course it hadn’t because it was just the way he liked it. With a cheeky bow, Adrien extended his clawed had to Marinette.

“Mi’lady,” His pupils dilated as his dimpled grin made an appearance. Mari quickly turned and grabbed the miraculous boxes she’d put on top of her dresser, shoving them into the pockets that appeared when her suit had changed. There were no lumps or bumps where the boxes rested in her suit, the magic of it tucking them safely away. “Shall we get going?”

“Yes, we shall,” Marinette took Adrien’s hand and they leapt out into the cool night air.


	11. Chapter 11

Mari swung onto Luka’s houseboat and found him reclining under the darkening sky on a beach chair with his guitar in his lap and his earbuds in his ears. Seeing Mari’s black clad feet, Luka looked up and shot her a smile, Marinette dug the Snake miraculous box out of her pocket. Adrien was dropping Pollen off to Chloe and telling her to meet at the Eiffel Tower, so Marinette would head to Kagami’s and get her after Luka had his miraculous. They’d bumped into Alya and Nino, patrolling together of course, as they rav over the rooftops together before splitting up. Alya and Nino had pretended, pretty well, that they hadn’t known who Ladybug was beneath the mask, even if Mari was blushing more furiously than she ever had in her entire life. 

“Ladybug? Is everything alright?” Luka placed his guitar gently on the ground beside him and pulled an earbud out, leaving it hanging out of the neck of his shirt. “Yeah, Echo, Ladybug is here. Give me a second.”

“Echo?” Mari remembered the song Luka let Nino play today, she’d only understood the lines in English and French but she’d understood enough to know that it was a love song.

“My girlfriend,” Luka grinned, running a hand through his dark hair. “She wants you to know what she can hang up if you need her to.”

“What’s her name?” Maybe Marinette’s curiosity was getting the best of her or maybe she was looking for a way to delay the inevitable unveiling that was coming once everyone met at the Eiffel Tower.

“Kagami, Kagami Tsurugi,” He said her name like it was the most beautiful thing he’d said or heard in his entire life. “It’s a new thing, we started dating a few hours ago and we just never hung up.”

“Can you put her on loudspeaker?” She was happy for Luka and Kagami. It wasn’t a pairing she’d expected but today had been full of surprises, she had no idea what was coming next but she hoped that it wouldn’t leave her reeling. Mari held the Snake miraculous box loosely in her hand and felt a faint pulsing where the Dragon miraculous rested against her leg.

“Uh, sure,” Luka unplugged his earbuds and tugged the through his shirt, the carefully bundled earbuds replaced his phone as he pulled it out of his pocket and tapped the call with Kagami onto loudspeaker. “Did you ear that, Echo?”

“Affirmative,” Kagami’s voice filtered through the speaker of Luka’s phone.

“Chat Noir and I are calling a meeting tonight at the Eiffel Tower,” Kagami released a confused hum. “We want you two, you and Luka, there with your miraculouses.”

“But we don’t have our miraculouses,” The cogs in Luka’s head were turning as Kagami responded. Well, that answered Marinette’s question of Luka and Kagami knowing their superhero identities. Kagami tended not to be an open book though so it wasn’t a surprise.

“I do,” Mari held the Snake miraculous box out to Luka, who took it in his hand reverently. “I dropped by Luka’s house to give it to him and I’ll be by yours soon, Kagami, to give you yours. Chat and I want you to keep them.”

“Keep them?” Luka raised an eyebrow. “But we’ve given them back after each battle?”

“Chat and I can’t fight Hawkmoth alone anymore, we’ve called Rena Rouge and Carapace to meet us at the Eiffel Tower too so we can discuss everything. But there is a small...catch, if you will,” Marinette started toying with the belt slinging her yoyo around her waist. “We want everyone to reveal who they are underneath the masks. I know I’ve said that it’s not safe but since the Miraculous Guardian gave his guardianship to me, things have changed and it’s not sustainable anymore.”

“Makes sense,” Luka supplied, still looking very confused. 

“You can tell each other who you are now, you are a couple after all, or you can wait until all of us are together. It’s up to you. I have to head your way now, Kagami, or Chat’ll worry,” Marinette met Luka’s eye and winked. “See you guys very soon. Oh, and when I say Eiffel Tower, I mean the top of it.”

“Alright, let’s wait until we’re at the tower, Echo, is that alright?” Luka’s voice faded into the background as Marinette used her yoyo to swing herself onto a nearby roof and run to the Tsurugi residence.

~~~~~~~~~~~  
Standing with Alya, Nino and Chloe on top of the Eiffel tower, Adrien paced back and forth looking out toward the horizon.

“Dude, chill,” Nino was lying on the ground near where Adrien walked a beaten path into the metal below them. “She’ll be here soon, it’s not like you put a time on when we had to be here.”

“Chat, pacing isn’t going to bring Ladybug here any faster,” Chloe had peeled one of her gloves off and was filing her nails. She’d chosen to give her long-sleeved suit gloves, probably so she could do exactly this. Behind Chat, the sound of feet hitting the landing they were on sent him whirling to face the newcomer. Or newcomers.

“Unlike the rest of us, he can’t climb up here,” Ryuko said, Viperion lounging in her arms with a lazy grin. Unceremoniously, Ryuko dropped him and sent the teal clad snake-hero thudding to the ground. Viperion didn’t protest or anything, he just laid on the ground and looked at Ryuko like she hung the moon.

“Was dropping him necessary, Ryuko?” The teasing voice of Ladybug behind him had Adrien snapping his head to face her so quickly he almost gave himself whiplash. Adrien ran toward her and lifted her into her arms, a choking laugh leaving his girlfriend’s lips. “He-hey Chat...can y-you put me down? I c-can’t breathe.”

Alya and Nino shared a smirk as they watched Chat gently release Ladybug and set her down on her feet. Viperion still hadn’t looked away from Ryuko but the dragon-hero had a ghost smile and a ‘finally’ look on her face; Queen Bee scoffed at the display and whispered something about Chat being absolutely insane.

“Alright, so everyone is here,” Marinette looked around the group and made sure that everyone was accounted for. “Has Chat not explained to anyone what we’re doing?”

Queen Bee raised her hand and then lowered it when Alya shot her an agitated grimace.

“I’ll take that as everyone knowing,” Mari looked at Adrien, who shrugged. “We’re going to find out each others identities tonight. I know I’ve said in the past that it’s not safe but that’s changed now and it is imperative that we trust each other completely. We might have found a way to defeat Hawkmoth but Chat and I can’t do it alone. Paris has more than just us now, it has all of you too,” Mari met each of their eyes in turn. “And if we don’t stand as one, we will all fall.”

“Us showing you who we are means we have a lot of trust in you guys. You’ve proven yourselves to us,” Chloe looked at her feet guiltily, saying that she’d proven anything was a stretch seeing as she had almost completely revealed her own identity on several occasions. “You too, Queen Bee, you’ve proven yourself too.”

Nino peeled himself off the floor, Alya unhooked herself from the railing she’d been leaning against, Ryuko pulled Viperion to his feet, and Chloe put her nail file away, tugging her glove back on. The six of them stood in a circle, Nino to Marinette’s right and Adrien to her left. Nino nodded at Marinette and Adrien.

“Wayzz, shell off,” A green light flared from Nino. Beside him, Alya followed suit.

“Trixx, let’s stand,”

Then Luka.

“Sass, scales slow,”

Kagami.  
“Longg, hold your breath,”

Chloe.

“Pollen, back to the hive,”

Adrien.

“Plagg, claws in,”

And, finally, Marinette.

“Tikki, spots off,”

The group looked at each other, drinking in the true identities of the people around them. Adrien reached his hand out to Marinette, which she took with a soft, nervous sigh before meeting the eyes of her friends.

“So…,” Her voice wobbled. What if this ruined everything? Before Mari could continue, Alya sprinted forward and pulled her into a hug, a loud squeal resounding off the metal around them. 

“I’m so proud of you, Mari,” Alya squeezed Marinette as tightly as she could and pressed a tear thickened kiss to her best friends cheek. “I’m always proud of you but I’m especially proud right now.”

“Al, Mari needs to breathe too,” Nino looked at the girls as he clasped Adrien’s hand and pulled the blonde boy into a loose hug. Alya let go, her eyes sparkling with tears as a huge smile curved across her face.

“This wasn’t what I was expecting but I don’t think that anyone else could be Ladybug if you weren’t, Marinette,” Chloe stepped in front of Mari, her voice soft and a sincere smile across her glossed lips. For the first time in her entire life, Marinette Dupain-Cheng watched Chloe Bourgeois open her arms toward her, inviting her once enemy in for a hug. A strange but not uncomfortable warmth began to grow in Mari’s stomach as she wrapped her arms around Chloe and rested her head on the other girls yellow clad shoulder. “Thank you, Marinette, for trusting me.”

“Thank you, Chloe, for giving me a reason to,” Mari squeezed Chloe gently, the blonde girl laughing. Alya looked at Nino, who shot her a wink and a grin; this was an incredibly weird sight to behold but Chloe was bound to grow out of her bitchiness eventually, they were very lucky that it was recently. Pulling out of the hug, Chloe caught Marinette’s hand and squeezed it, mouthing ‘thank you’ to the dark haired girl as she stepped away. Mari turned to face Luka and Kagami. “Are you two alright?”

“I guessed who he was the minute I saw him,” Kagami’s voice was even, steady, despite the sarcastic half smile playing on her face. Luka was still looking at his girlfriend like she hung the moon. “I mean, who else would choose a stringed instrument as a weapon?”

“Luka,” The group agreed, even Chloe, who really hadn’t known him before this point. 

“What did you need to tell us, Mari?” Nino pulled Alya into his side and slotted his girlfriend under his arm with a kiss to the crown of her head. Adrien grabbed Marinette’s hand again and interlaced their fingers, the movement wasn’t lost to the group around them. “Congrats, man, I knew you had it in you.”

“That only took forever,” Chloe didn’t sound jealous as she rolled her eyes. 

“Weren’t you already dating?” Kagami’s face was deadpan, complete seriousness in her tone. Adrien looked at her with such an amount of incredulous annoyance that Mari, Nino and Chloe were completely taken aback. “I’m kidding, you dumbass, I’m happy for you two. As Chloe said, it only took you for-fucking-ever.”

“Did Kagami just make a joke?” Alya’s eyes were blown wide open, she struggled to keep herself from laughing as she feigned complete surprise. 

“She does that,” Luka brushed a piece of Kagami’s hair out of her eyes, painting her naturally pale cheeks crimson. 

“I feel left out,” Chloe undid her ponytail and let the thick blonde waves of her hair fall to her shoulders. “If I knew this was going to be a quadruple date, I would’ve brought Sabby.”

“Nothing’s stopping you now, Chloe,” Marinette shot a wink at her. “But we need to get to the serious shit so I can go home and sleep.”

Sitting in a circle on top of the Eiffel Tower, lazy autumn wind whooshing around them, Marinette and Adrien told their friends what they’d learnt.

~~~~~~

Lila was furious. Something had happened in the last day or so and now Adrien and Marinette were dating. They’d turned up to school separately but seeing Marinette practically fly across the courtyard and into Adrien’s arms with a mix of cheers and jealous gasps around them had been enough to tell her their dynamic had changed. Adrien hadn’t let go of her hand all day and kept pressing kisses to Dupain-Cheng’s knuckles, causing a blush to spread over her cheeks. The more times Lila saw them together, the more the rage in her stomach bubbled and boiled, threatening to wipe her out.  
Gabriel Agreste had once told Lila that an Akumatized Marinette would be a masterpiece and would bring Ladybug and Chat Noir to their knees. Even the thought of Marinette being a masterpiece as a ruthless villain made Lila seethe, she was the masterpiece. She was the one who would destroy the heroes that had failed her so much, she would be the one to hold Adrien’s hand and laugh at his jokes while her eyes shone with love. But that disgusting, overrated, moronic girl had him in a web, probably one she built out of lies far more dangerous than Lila’s. This wasn’t the end for Lila Rossi or her plans. She would win, come hell or high water, and she would tear the world to pieces to get what she wanted; what she deserved.

~~~~~~

Mari sat on one of the benches in the courtyard, her legs stretched across Adrien’s lap as she sketched and he scrolled through the pages of Luka’s music notes. The feigned contentedness in her posture was veiling the unease sludging thickly through her veins, she felt Lila’s eyes on her. A cold, calculating stare that make Marinette’s skin prickle and her heart beat unevenly. She glanced up from her sketchbook and looked at her boyfriend through her lashes, the light caught the subtle waves of his hair and highlighted the streaks of copper and wheat and ash in his golden locks; he was so beautiful, the pout of his lips and the slight bunching of his forehead as he thought, the way the computer screen reflected in his green eyes, Marinette wanted to paint him but there wouldn’t be enough time in the world to do justice to the person before her.

“What’re you sketching, Mari?” Adrien peeled his eyes away from the screen and tipped Marinette’s head up by hooking his index finger gently under her chin.

“You,” A simple enough answer. She was sketching him but, just like the idea of painting him, it wasn’t doing him justice and she wasn’t sure if he’d appreciate the amount of attention she was paying to his lashes, ears, and cheekbones. 

“You’ll have to show me when you’re done,” Adrien squeezed Marinette’s shin gently before returning to the computer resting on her legs.

“A-adrien, we haven’t actually talked about how we’re going to contact Nathalie,” Mari chewed her lip, anxiously. She didn’t want to wait long enough for Gabriel to Akumatize someone, especially if that someone was a rabid Adrien Agreste fan who wanted to pop her head off her shoulders for taking the model off the market.

“All handled, Princess,” He shot her a wink which did absolutely nothing to calm her anxiety.

“How?”

“Burner phone, I’m waiting for a reply right now,” Adrien grabbed his bag and pulled a cheap smartphone out of the front pocket, showing the message bank to Mari. All the message that he’d sent said was ‘Nathalie Sancouer, this is Chat Noir, Ladybug and I want to help you take down Hawkmoth, reply as soon as you receive this message’. “Mum generally doesn’t take ultra long to respond unless she’s in a meeting or something but I didn’t actually check her schedule this morning so I have no clue if she’s in one or not.”

“Good thinking,” Mari grinned at him.

“Why thank you, mi’lady,” Adrien poked his tongue out at Marinette with a cheeky smile. 

“Shut up, you insufferable dumpster cat,”

“I’m your insufferable dumpster cat,” 

“I knew I’d made a mistake,”

“Good luck returning me without the receipt,”

“You didn’t come with a receipt,”

“Well, count yourself lucky that I didn’t because now you can’t return me at all!”

“You’re an idiot,” Marinette wriggled forward slightly and pressed a kiss to Adrien’s cheek. “At least you’re pretty.”


	12. Chapter 12

Gabriel tasted the jealousy and anger coursing through the emotional web of Paris. The emotion was syrupy on his tongue, thick and sweet and cloying, intoxicating. Hands clasped behind his back, Gabriel entered his office and locked the door, the strength of the delicious furiosity sizzling on his tongue told him that this person, the person releasing such strong waves of emotion, was going to be perfect. Pressing the buttons on Emilie’s painting that took him to his lair, Gabriel buzzed with the emotional high and the delirious excitement that came before he akumatized someone. Sinking down the metallic tunnel, he plucked Nooroo’s brooch from his breast pocket and called the Kwami into physical existence.

“M-master, ca-can you feel it?” Nooroo was shaking, his being was more forcefully entwined with the emotional auras surrounding him, the particular tidal wave he was asking about was so strong it had almost completely drowned out any other emotions that should be pricking the back of his skull. 

“Yes, Nooroo, isn’t it glorious?” Gabriel’s lungs felt larger than they ever had in his entire life, his chest swelling with excitement.

“Ye-yes, master,” The Butterfly Kwami’s normally thin voice had grown even more watery, wavering in the air. The platform landed in the Butterfly Chamber, Gabriel’s white butterflies fluttering around the room, the soft beating of their wings calming. As Gabriel stalked into the middle of the room, the butterflied kicked up and floated away from him, resting in the darkened corners of the chamber. The great window opened and looked out across Paris, tied into a constant stream broadcast from cameras all over the city, once he had made his villain, he would be able to see through their eyes on the screen before him. Multiple cameras flickered between different locations, streets and homes and shops, even Adrien’s school. 

“Nooroo, dark wings rise,” Nooroo was sucked into the brooch now pinned to Gabriel’s cravat, Hawkmoth’s suit bleeding from it and wrapping around his body. The cane Gabriel had chosen as Nooroo’s weapon, solidified in his hand and with a masterful twirl, Gabriel cracked the bottom of the cane against the stone floor and summoned a butterfly to him. Holding the insect gently in his palm, Gabriel watched as one of the screens showed a girl with terribly bleached blonde hair practically fuming on a balcony at the Franciose Dupont college. He couldn’t see who she was looking at but he could taste her fury. “Fly, my little Akuma, and evilise her.”

Imbuing the butterfly with malicious intent, Gabriel sent it out through the screen focusing on the girl. The insect collided with her hand, sinking into a faux rolex watch clasped around her wrist. 

“Hawmoth, we meet again,” A dark grin spread across the girl’s face as she absorbed his power. Her hands tightened on the railing beneath them, her rage flaring brighter and higher, a drug to Gabriel’s senses. “I shall bring you Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculouses but you must give me Adrien Agreste’s heart in return. I know that he is your son.”

A strange request. “What use do you have for his heart, Revenger?”

“Only the power that comes with his name will fix me, will make my life what I deserve,” Her voice took on a very dark tone, the pure malice oozing from her vocal chords was terrifying.

“Then you will have what you desire, Revenger, but bring me those miraculouses,”

“What power do you bestow upon me, Hawkmoth?”

“The power to make anyone you touch see their loved ones for the darkest parts of themselves, once they have been infected they will follow you and only you as you will be a paragon of purity in their eyes,” 

“Thank you, Hawkmoth,” Purple smoke enveloped her body, Lila Rossi faded into Revenger. A black suit that seemed to swallow light formed around her body, wrapping like bandages. A small crossbow dropped into her hand out of thin air, a small quiver of bolts formed on her thigh and was secured by a belt around her waist. Her hair returned to its natural lustrous brunette, the bald patches regrowing and the once dead locks regained life.

“A gift to you, Revenger, once you cease to be under my control, your new hair will remain as it is now,” It wasn’t exactly a gift, the fashion designer part of Gabriel (so 99% of him) absolutely hated the way the bottle blonde made her look. She looked pallid and yellow, sickly. It wasn’t flattering.

“You are too kind,” Lila climbed up on the railing and balanced perfectly on the balls of her feet. “I am Revenger and you have scorned me for the last time. Let the world see you for who you truly are.”

Marinette and Adrien’s eyes snapped up to Lila, the girl stick straight and menacing. Lila raised the crossbow and notched a bolt, aiming it at Marinette’s neck. Gabriel’s screen formed to show what Lila was seeing, he saw his son with a dark haired girl, her legs stretched across his lap. Adrien had a girlfriend and he hadn’t told Gabriel? How had his son become so selfish? As Lila pressed her finger to the trigger, loosing the bolt toward the couple, a green figure leapt in front and lifted a turtle shell shield.

The bolt bounced off and pinged into the ground, melting away and reappearing in Lila’s quiver. 

“Marinette, Adrien, go,” Carapace yelled at them, his shield held in front of him, legs braced so the next impact would not knock him back. “Go!”

Adrien scrambled to his feet and grabbed Mari’s hand, pulling her after him as he ran as quickly as his legs would take him. Lila nocked another bolt and shot it at the retreating couple, missing. An angry scream tore from her throat as the bolt smacked into a metal pillar and disintegrated. Shield still raised, Carapace ran backwards out of the courtyard, his eyes scanning the space below the balcony, Lila guessed that other students were currently under there. Her eyes snapped to the alcove across the room from where she stood, Chloe Bourgeois had leapt in front of Mylene, Sabrina, and Nathaniel, her arms outstretched. She was more than willing to take one of Lila’s bolts to protect the three behind her.

“Ivan!” Chloe’s eyes focused across the room from herself. “Get everyone on your side out the door! Mylene, Nathaniel, Sabby, you have to run.”

“Chloe, no!” Sabrina placed a shaking hand on Chloe’s shoulder. “You can’t stay here.”

“If it gets you guys out, I don’t give a shit,” The blonde girls jaw set, her shoulders rolling, and her stance unwavering. “Pollen, BUZZ ON!”

She knew that she had no choice but to transform here, Nino had been able to duck into the boys bathroom and transform but if Chloe moved an inch, Lila would loose another bolt and strike down those behind her. The yellow and black suit stretched across Chloe’s body and solidified.  
“Sabby, Mylene, Nathaniel, GO!” Sabrina’s eyes were wide but she listened to her girlfriend’s words and pushed the fear frozen Mylene forward, gripping Nathaniel’s sleeve. Lila shot a bolt, Chloe dived to the side and deflected it with the chitinous vambraces now protecting her forearms. She shot another, hoping to catch any of the students as they ran but her aim was off and Chloe kept smacking the bolts away using the vambraces.

“Woohoo, Pollen!” Chloe released a joyful whoop. “These are damn cool! Glad you took inspiration from Wonder Woman with her indestructible braces. I could marry you!”

“SHUT UP!” Lila was fuming. Rage boiled in her veins and clouded her vision.

“Aim for her neck, Revenger,” Hawkmoth’s voice cooed in her mind.

“I would if she stopped moving!” Lila gritted her teeth and shot another bolt, Chloe ducked out of the way and did a handspring over the next bolt she released.

‘Hey, fuck you, Rossi,” The heel of someone’s boot made contact with Lila’s temple and sent her sprawling off the railing, landing with an oof on the courtyard floor. Rolling backwards, Lila uncurled to her feet and stood with the crossbow nocked and braced on her forearm. The person who had kicked her was Rena Rouge, now standing a few feet down the railing Lila had been balanced upon. Rena’s flute twirled behind her back before she caught it in front of her with one hand and launched into a one handed cartwheel, pressing the flute to her lips. “Heard you could use some help, Queen Bee.”

“I have never been more glad to see you in my entire life, Rouge,” Alya played a gentle tune through the flute, Lila couldn’t hear what she played but Chloe could. Chloe knew that she was calling Marinette, Adrien, Nino, Luka, and Kagami to join the fray, telling them that the school was clear and that the only people left were them. “Wanna whip some lying ass?”

“Do you even need to ask?” Alya released a laugh and flipped down off the railing, Lila followed her movements with the end of her crossbow, her finger itching to pull the trigger. As Alya reached Chloe’s side, Lila pressed down and loosed the bolt, aiming for her throat. Almost lazily, Chloe stretched her arm out and deflected it away from Alya. “Damn, thank you.”

“All in a day’s work,” The glass of the skylight above came crashing down, Chloe held her braced arms above her head to protect herself as Alya did a back handspring out of the way of the sharp shower. Kagami, as Ryuko, landed in the middle of the courtyard, her blade drawn and pointed loosely at Lila, the champion fencer’s stance was perfect and fearless.

“I think it would be best if you dropped that crossbow, Revenger,” Complete indifference woven through her steady tone as she flung the sword up, it flipped in the air, and she caught it in her opposite hand, pushing the foot on that side forward to brace herself. 

“I think it would be best if all of you WENT TO HELL!” Lila pulled the trigger, Kagami arched her blade through the air and severed the bolt. Unlike the ones that had missed or that Chloe and Nino had deflected, this one didn’t disintegrate and remained in two perfect, wooden halves on the concrete floor.

“That sounds like a no to me,” Luka came to a skidding halt beside Alya, his lyre clasped in one hand as he watched his girlfriend stare down Lila with such terrifying intensity. “Honestly, Lila, this looks like a no win situation for you.”

“I,” Lila nocked a bolt. “Do,” She balanced the crossbow on her forearm. “Not,” She cracked her neck. “Lose,” Lila pressed the trigger, aiming for Luka this time. 

“Honestly? I am directly in front of you and you still want to shoot them?” Kagami lazily cut through the bolt again, the two halves of the shaft skidding across the floor. Luka laughed, Alya rolled her eyes, and Chloe flipped open a panel on her vambraces, sending a direct message to Marinette’s yoyo and Adrien’s baton.

“It looks like you’re losing to me,” The voice came from above the congregation, Chat was lounging on the railing of the balcony, his leg hanging down over the side and swinging back and forth. His baton was secured to his lower back and he appeared to be admiring the clawed nails on the tips of his fingers. “But who am I to judge what you think winning is?”

“You,” Lila changed where her crossbow was pointed, aiming it at Chat’s head. Nonchalantly picking at his teeth, Adrien was completely ready for her shooting a bolt at him. Nino was actually standing on the roof, looking through the skylight, with Marinette, if Lila tried to shoot him, Nino would drop through the roof in front of Adrien and deflect the bolt.

“Me?” Adrien tipped his head and placed a hand on his chest.

“Give me your miraculous,” She was so angry that the hand holding the crossbow had begun to shake, her stance less steady than it was before he’d arrived. “And give me your friends ones too.”

“Let me think about that,” Adrien reclined back on the railing and folded his arms behind his head. “What do you guys think? Viperion? Should I give ‘em all up?”

“That seems like effort to me, Chat,” Luka gave a half-hearted shrug, a grin playing on his lips.

“What about you, Queen Bee? Do you think she deserves them?” He looked down at his friends lazily, the blonde waves of his hair gliding across his forehead.

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Chloe paused. “NOT.”  
“It looks like you’ve stung Queen Bee, Revenger,” Adrien stretched his hanging leg out and arched his back slightly. “Rena Rouge, do you disagree with our friends?”

“It’s hard to disagree if they’re right,” Alya slung her flute across her back languidly, rolling her neck and shoulders.

“Ryuko,” Still swinging his leg, Adrien strung out the vowels of Kagami’s hero name. “You’re the deciding vote; should she have them or should we beat her ass?”

“I think that is a given, Chat Noir,” Kagami’s eyes didn’t leave Lila, the cold intensity in them sending goose bumps across the villain’s skin.

“It looks like you’ve been outvoted, Revenger,” Chat at up and rested his elbow on the leg propped up upon the railing. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way-”

“STOP FUCKING STALLING!” Lila pulled the trigger, sending the bolt flying toward Adrien’s golden head. Just as ceremoniously as Nino had planned, he dropped from the skylight and sent the bolt bouncing off across the courtyard, landing and rolling expertly, Nino raised his shield toward Lina from her left. 

“And you thought that we’d leave Chat, of all people, to be an idiot undefended?” Nino looked up over the rim of his shield, of course Adrien wouldn’t be left within shooting range undefended. None of them would do that, Chloe shouldn’t have even done that but she could deflect the bolts, Adrien couldn’t.

“ARGGHHH!” She released an angry scream and shot a bolt at Nino, it bounced off his shield as he ducked back behind it with a laugh.

“I get that he’s a sitting duck but he can literally deflect them, are you actually thinking this through?” Alya gestured toward Nino. Lila shot a bolt toward Alya, which Kagami sliced in half almost immediately with a small, tired sigh.

“Where is Ladybug?” Lila’s scream echoed through the courtyard, reverberating across the concrete and metal with distressing pitch. 

“My lady,” Adrien sang, looking up through the skylight. A red blur dropped from the roof and landed gently on Lila’s right. “There you are, we were beginning to think that you got lost.”

“I’m the one with the sense of direction, Kitty,” Marinette raised her fists in front of her face and took a fighting stance, she’d been taking martial arts since she could walk and Ladybug’s yoyo wasn’t as useful a close combat weapon as Kagami’s sword, Adrien’s baton, or Nino’s shield. Chloe had forgone a weapon, relying on stingers she could release from her fingertips when she wanted to. Luka and Alya were both ranged heroes, their musical instruments allowing them to throw sound if they chose to do so. “I see you’ve met the gang, Revenger. How do you like our little group?”

“I want you gone,” Lila ran toward Marinette, the crossbow slung on the hip opposite to her quiver, fists raised. Mari slapped her hand away and landed a blow to the villain’s abdomen, winding her and sending her sprawling backwards. Nino and Kagami advanced, Adrien dropped from the railing and pulled his baton from the small of his back, extending it. Lila pulled herself back up and continued to wail on Marinette clumsily, Mari blocked every blow and ducked beneath a weak kneed kick Lila swung toward her. Realising that she was surrounded, Lila tried to swipe and slap at all three of them at once, her movements clumsy and off-kilter. Kagami had sheathed her sword and taken a stance similar to Mari’s, she wasn’t just a trained fencer but she was also a black belt in Karate and dabbled in competitive judo; Kagami was a force to be reckoned with. Nino’s shield was still raised, he held it over his chest and abdomen, protecting the soft parts of his body from any blows Lila might accidentally land. 

Trying to fight both Marinette and Kagami, Lila was beginning to tire. Hawkmoth’s whispering in her ear was ignored, she was too angry, too destructive, she had ceased to care about the power he had gifted her. Alya and Luka looked at each other, the small group crowding the flailing Lila starting to grow ever smaller. Lila landed a punch to Mari’s cheek, sending blood flying from Marinette’s mouth and onto the floor; the sight shocked Alya to the core as Kagami grabbed Lila’s fist and launched her into Nino’s shield, the villain’s body smacking the ground thickly. Raising the flute to her lips, Alya played a gentle, healing melody, the music wrapped around Mari’s bruised jaw and drew out the pain, healing her. With a grateful grin to her best friend, Marinette crossed the floor to Lila and snapped her crossbow. No akuma was released.

“Check her watch,” Nino had lowered his shield to sit at his site, secured to his arm. Marinette reached down and pulled the faux rolex from Lila’s wrist, stomping the time piece beneath her heel. The dark purple butterfly flew free from the watch and tried to flutter away, releasing her yoyo with a small flick of her wrist, Marinette caught the akuma.

“No more evildoing for you,” She released the now white butterfly from the yoyo and watched it fly away. “Bye bye, little butterfly.”

As she hadn’t used Lucky Charm, Marinette couldn’t fix anything, not that she actually cared about Lila’s watch. The brunette girl’s costume melted away, the luxurious mane of hair Hawkmoth had given her remained, falling messily over her shoulders.

“Fuck you, Ladybug,” Lila tentatively pulled herself to her feet and wiped an oozing smudge of blood off her face with her sleeve, her nose was bleeding profusely. “Fuck all of you.”

“Fuck you too,” Luka wanted to feel included. Lila shot him an incredibly greasy glare and stormed from the building.

“That could’ve gone worse,” Adrien wrapped his arm around Marinette and kissed her inky hair. “Great job team.”

“Yeah,” “Good job, guys,” “We kicked ass,” responses melted together as the group stood in the destroyed courtyard. 

“I-I should do Lucky Charm so we can fix the roof,” Mari pulled out of Adrien’s hold and called upon her power. Not paying attention to what the spell gave her, Marinette tossed it into the air and released a cloud of ladybugs that fixed the smashed roof. “Tikki, spots off.”

The group returned to their civilian forms and fled the courtyard before anyone else could come. Eventually, the students returned to the school, reporters asking them for stories of what happened, the now civilian superheroes blended into the shaken crowd. Adrien held Mari’s shaking hand, Chloe ran to Sabrina and hugged her tightly, Nino rubbed his hand gently up and down Alya’s back, Luka pressed a kiss to the back of Kagami’s hand which made her blush. All the other students had seen Chloe transform but, somehow, they had all come to the unanimous decision not to tell any of the reporters or even the teachers. Because Chloe had put herself in front of her classmates, she had put herself at risk for their safety, the perception of her had changed. When Chloe released the now sobbing Sabrina, Ivan walked up to her and thanked her profusely for protecting his girlfriend, Chloe pulled Mylene into a hug and promised the smaller girl, and her boyfriend, that she would protect them no matter what. Mylene’s eyes started to fill with tears, this girl had bullied her for so many years but had been willing to sacrifice herself; with beautiful gentleness, Chloe wiped Mylene’s tears away and promised, again, that no one would ever have to fear her again. Ivan pulled Mylene away, both gave Chloe sincere and watery smiles, and sat down on a bench side by side. 

“You have changed,” Marinette placed her hand on Chloe’s wrist and looked at her earnestly.

“I told you I had,” Sabrina walked back over to Chloe and took her girlfriend’s hand, squeezing. 

“Thank you, Chloe,” Mari gave her a quick hug and returned to her boyfriend. 

“Are you alright, Sabby?” Her eyes roamed over the face of the redhaired girl beside her. Sabrina’s eyes were wide, fearful and awed. She didn’t look harmed in the slightest. Without warning, Sabrina released Chloe hands and gripped the blonde girl’s cheeks, pulling her face down to meet her level. Sabrina kissed Chloe, cheers and gasps rising up around them as their lips moved together. She’d insisted that Chloe keep their relationship quiet until she was ready but Sabrina couldn’t wait any longer, releasing Chloe from the kiss, Sabrina pressed her forehead to Chloe’s. “I-...uh...wow.”

“I love you, Chloe Bourgeois,” Sabrina’s voice was thick with unshed tears as she looked into Chloe’s sparkling blue eyes.  
“I love you too, Sabrina Raincomprix,” The two girls kissed sweetly again, their classmates letting out happy whoops for the two as they held each other.


	13. Chapter 13

Nathalie watched the news with her office door locked, Duusuu fluttering worriedly around her head in a mess of crystalline tears and silky lilac feathers.

“Duusuu, stop,” Nathalie waved her hand at the Kwami, Duusuu’s tiny chest contracting too quickly as she inhaled. In a daze, the Peacock Kwami lowered herself to Nathalie’s desk and sat on it, shaking.

“H-how’re we going to get Nooroo away from him, Nathalie?” Duusuu’s voice rattled around in her head, echoing in a way she’d never experienced before. 

“I don’t know just yet but I am devising a plan. Chat Noir messaged me today,” Fishing her phone out of her pocket, Nathalie unlocked it and showed Chat’s message to Duusuu, who exhaled heavily. “After we’ve sorted this out, I’m going to request custody of Adrien.”

~~~~~~~~

Gripping Adrien’s hand, a dizzy feeling fluttering in her chest, he walked her down the steps of the Louvre. She’d wanted to see a new exhibition really badly, but Marinette hadn’t been expecting Adrien to show up at her door dressed in dark jeans, a button down and a beanie over his golden hair with two tickets for premium entry. It had been weeks since she’d mentioned it too, maybe having waited so long for Adrien to return her affection had given her the strange notion that he didn’t listen to her, but she couldn’t be sure.

“Are you alright, Mari?” Pausing at the bottom of the staircase and pulling his girlfriend to the side slightly, Adrien’s voice wavered with worry. 

“Y-yeah, I am, why wouldn’t I be?” Her cheeks started to heat, she could feel the crimson flush rising up her neck to paint her face with embarrassment.

“You’re chewing your lip,” Adrien reached a hand out to her face and brushed his thumb across her bottom lip, pulling it free of Marinette’s teeth. “I know this is the first date date we’ve been on so I’m very wary of making you anxious or uncomfortable.”

Marinette giggled, putting her hand over his where it was resting on her face. “Anxious or uncomfortable? Really, Adrien?”

“Come on!” His cheeks turned red as he ducked his head down to avoid her gaze, the thick locks of his blonde hair sliding over his forehead as they freed themselves from where they were loosely tucked beneath his beanie. “Mari,” Adrien dragged out the vowels of her name. “Don’t make me say it.”

“Make you say what?” There was mischief in Marinette’s stunning blue eyes as she quirked a worried half smile. 

“You really wanna do this?” The smile turned from worried to cocky, Marinette tipped her head to the side slightly and slid her hand down his arm as his palm remained pressed gently against her face. “You get really anxious, Mari, and I don’t want to make you hate me.”

“Aw,” Mari released a small squeak as her grin dropped, looking up into his green eyes through her lashes. “You couldn’t make me hate you, Adrien. And me having anxiety about being around you is a thing of the past! After the day where we ran around Paris while I was in my pyjamas, I really don’t think I’m ever going to reach the same level of embarrassment ever again,” Seeing his jaw drop slightly, she amended her words. “It wasn’t you! It was me running around with you while in my pyjamas! Y-you’re wonderful, Adrien!”

“Then what’s on your mind?” He brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“I was just thinking that…,” Mari paused, embarrassed with herself. “...what if your Dad doesn’t like me and he doesn’t end up wanting us together?”

“He doesn’t have the right to choose who I love, Mari, and if he has a problem with you then I’m going to have a problem with him. My Dad has left me on my own for almost my whole life, I’m beyond the point of worrying if the wonderful, intelligent, selfless person I’m bringing home is going to meet his standards,” 

Marinette felt her cheeks begin to blaze red at Adrien’s words, her boyfriend grasping her hands in his as he rested his forehead against hers, blinking slowly before meeting her gaze.

“You are amazing, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and you are talented, selfless and twice the person any of the vapid girls my father has tried to set me up with are,” Brushing her fringe out of her eyes, Marinette allowed Adrien to press a soft kiss to the tip of her nose as she scrunched her crimson flushed nose up with happiness. “Now let’s go look at this exhibit. It’s not going to be anywhere near as interesting and beautiful as you but I guess I have all the time in the world to admire you.”

“You have a way with words, Adrien Agreste,” Marinette pulled away from Adrien and interlaced their fingers, tugging him toward the exhibit. “Are you ready, Chaton?”

“If you’re coming with me, I’m always ready, my lady,”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Nathalie,” Snapping her eyes up from her tablet, Nathalie looked at Gabriel Agreste with wide-eyed surprise. Lurching up from her seat to stand for her boss, she pushed her glasses up to stop them from slipping down her nose further. “Where is my son?”

“Y-your son,” Stumbling over her words, Nathalie willed her heart to stop racing. There was a part of her that worried that Gabriel had worked out that she’d betrayed him and that part wouldn’t stop singing it’s siren song in the back of her stress shaken mind. “Yes, your son, Adrien. Adrien is at the Louvre.”

“Pray tell, why is my son at the Louvre, Nathalie? I don’t remember consenting to him going on an excursion to the Louvre,” Gabriel’s voice was cold as he surveyed Nathalie from beneath his glasses. She wasn’t a short woman by any standards but there was something about the signature indifference of Gabriel Agreste’s gaze that made her feel miniscule. 

“He’s on a date,” 

“A date?” Nathalie couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually seen Gabriel surprised about anything but the slight widening of his eyes gave away his disbelief. His son had a girlfriend or boyfriend and hadn’t thought to tell him? His heir, his golden boy, had told Nathalie about his love before he’d told his own father. “Was he ever planning on telling me that he’d begun a relationship with someone?”

“Yes, he was, but he was waiting for the right time. The relationship is new, fledgling if you will, and he had no desire to bring Miss Dupain-Cheng home until he was sure that he was more than a passing fancy,”

“Dupain-Cheng? That’s the girl that designed the hat a few years ago for one of my competitions, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir, it is,”

“How do you know that she is who my son is seeing?” 

“Jean-Luc and I drove them to the Louvre, sir, we picked her up on the way and made sure the two arrived safely. I am quite sure that she is who he is seeing,”

“Mr Gorille,” Turning slightly toward the open doors behind him, Gabriel called for Jean-Luc. Both Nathalie and Gabriel were aware that Adrien has given Mr Gorille the pet name of ‘Gorilla’ and it had taken the two much longer than they cared to admit to stop calling the poor man by the nickname themselves. Gabriel had resolved to calling Jean-Luc by his family name, which quite literally meant ‘gorilla’, rather than address his bodyguard and chauffeur in such an undignified way. Jean-Luc always chuckled at the nickname, he’d been called worse in school having had such a ridiculous last name but it had become endearing when the young Agreste boy had begun to address him as such. 

“Yes, sir,” Jean-Luc Gorille entered the parlour with his hands held loosely behind his back. “How may I be of service?”

“Nathalie has just informed me that Adrien has gone to the Louvre with his girlfriend,” Sighing, Nathalie sat back down and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose once again. Why did Gabriel always feel the need to undermine her? Emilie hadn’t let her husband undermine her in such a way but Gabriel appeared to hold not even a modicum of the respect he had for Emilie for Nathalie.

“That is correct, sir,”

“Alright, thank you, Mr Gorille,” Bowing his head slightly, Gorilla left the room and resumed his pace in the hallway beyond. “Seeing as my son is not here, I guess I’ll discuss my plans for his 18th birthday with you.”

Sliding into the seat across from Nathalie, Gabriel braced his elbows on the table before him and steepled his fingers, pinning Nathalie with an intense stare.

“What are you planning?”

“I would like to throw a party for Adrien. A formal one,”

“Adrien is not one for large events, Mr Agreste,” Swallowing any fear she had of losing her job or drawing forth Gabriel’s anger, Nathalie spoke truthfully about Adrien’s aversion to large, decadent events especially when they were being held in his name. 

“I’m aware of that, Nathalie, but it is an opportunity for me,”

“An opportunity of what kind, if I may ask?”

“An opportunity to meet my son’s girlfriend formally and to invite Ladybug and Chat Noir to an event which will allow me to steal their miraculouses out from under their noses,”


	14. Chapter 14

“In honour of my darling son, Adrien’s, 18th birthday, I would like to formally invite the superheroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir, to celebrate with us at La Chateau du Agreste in Alsace in three weeks time,” Standing straight backed with his hands loosely clutched at the base of his spine, Gabriel spoke into the camera with an emotionless visage. He was widely known as a man of little emotion and he assumed that even when his son and heir the public would find it highly worrying to see him express anything. “Their friends, Carapace, Rena Rouge, Queen Bee, Ryuko and Viperion are more than welcome to attend too as this occasion is a celebration of my son’s 18 years.”

Finishing his spiel, Gabriel turned away from the camera. “Turn it off, Nathalie, I am finished,” Stepping forward, Nathalie ended the recording and pressed the SD card free, clutching it in her hand tightly but not tightly enough to break it. “I expect that edited and sent to all news networks within the hour. You may take your leave.”

“Thank you, Mr Agreste,” Giving a stiff bow, Nathalie began to stride to the door, keeping the boiling anger in her stomach from breaking the surface of her icy demeanour. 

“Nathalie,” His words caused her to pause as her fingertips brushed the doorknob. “You will service me tonight, oui?”

He used the word service like she was nothing more than a prostitute that he would dole coin out to for subpar sexual relief. Nathalie has convinced herself that she was in love with Gabriel but the more time she’d spent lamenting over his treatment of her, the more she’d realised that she was nothing more than a warm body to him. But she didn’t have the strength to fight him on this now, not when he was inviting Ladybug and Chat Noir to the chateau for Adrien’s 18th. She knew that they’d take the party as a sign to steal the Butterfly miraculous out from under Gabriel’s nose and she was terrified for the damage such an event would have on Adrien. Nathalie didn’t want him to think she’d had a hand in his father destroying his 18th, and she certainly didn’t want him to think that the destruction was intentionally to drive his girlfriend away from him. 

“Oui, sir,” Nodding half heartedly, Nathalie gave in and turned the doorknob, closing the white painted door behind her with a subtle click.

~~~~~~~~

Lying with his head in Marinette’s lap, Adrien closed his eyes and sighed happily through his nose as he felt Mari’s long fingers thread through the golden strands of his hair. They were sitting in the park across from their school, a picnic mat spread out beneath them and the remains of their lunch packed back into the fabric basket Marinette had brought with her. The sun warmed his face but not as much as the presence of Mari, of his lady, warmed his chest and stomach. Soft fingertips brushed the corners of his upturned lips as he angled his head slightly into Mari’s caresses.

“You’re beautiful,” He didn’t open his eyes as he spoke, her fingers mapping the planes of his face in the shining daylight, despite the cold chill beginning to swirl around them.  
“Your eyes are closed,” There was a laugh in her voice that brought a full smile to his lips as the pad of Mari’s finger flicked off the tip of his nose gently. 

“That doesn’t mean that you’re not beautiful,” Her hands returned to massaging his scalp, Adrien released an involuntary purr at the sensation.

“D-did you just purr?” The massage paused for a split second as Mari spoke in awed disbelief.

“What of it?” Not opening his eyes, Adrien nudged his head back into her hand to coax her into resuming her ministrations. 

“Silly kitty,” Before he knew it, Marinette had leaned down and pressed her lips gently to his, the warm breath from her nose as she exhaled fanning over his chin. She tried to pull away but Adrien raised a hand to the back of her head and pulled her back down, trying to deepen the kiss despite their awkward positioning.

“Public park, lovebirds,” Alya’s voice startled them both, causing Adrien to smack his forehead against Marinette’s chin as he dove to sit up. “That has got to be the least graceful I’ve ever seen you, Agreste.”

Rubbing his forehead, Adrien scowled at Alya as she and Nino approached them, hand in hand. Worried, Mari scanned her eyes over Adrien’s forehead before pressing a kiss to the middle of it and moving to settle into his side.

“Good to see you happy, dude,” Nino extended a fist to Adrien, the blonde boy bumping his against it with a broad grin. “But we’re going to have to pop the bubble for a second.”

“What’s up, Nino?” Mari’s eyes grew wider slightly as she glanced up at Adrien.

“Well, your dad has decided to throw you a big ass party for your 18th, Adrien,” Adrien groaned and hung his head at Nino’s words, there was a small gasp of excitement from Mari though that sent Adrien’s mind into a dizzying spin of excitement for Marinette to meet Nathalie formally as his girlfriend and terror for his father’s cynical judgement of her. 

“He knows I hate parties, why would he do this?” Groaning, Adrien raised his head and slumped his shoulders.

“I don’t think Nino or Alya can answer that, Chaton, as neither of them are your father,” Mari flicked the side of his head with her long fingers.

“The party is at La Chateau du Agreste in Alsace,” The way Alya’s tongue curved over the name of Adrien’s family estate was perfect, better than the Agreste boy himself had ever been able to pronounce the title of his ancestral home. “And your dad has invited Ladybug, Chat Noir and the rest of the team.”

“Shit,” Adrien was at a loss for words other than profanity. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!”

A nearby mother scowled in Adrien’s direction as she pressed her hands over her young daughter’s ears and steered the child away from the congregation of teenagers.

“Adr-Adrien, stop,” Placing a gentle hand on her boyfriend’s face, Mari turned his gaze so it met hers with wide, imploring eyes. “This could be the perfect chance to whisk Nooroo away from him.”

He was shaking, he hadn’t noticed that he was shaking until he raised his own hand to cover Marinette’s, squeezing her hand gently. 

“Do you two want to sit down?” Glancing away from Adrien for a second, Mari invited Alya and Nino to sit with them, the other couple gladly taking up spots opposite their friends on the picnic mat. “Adrien, you’re shaking.”

“Yeah, I know,” He smiled weakly and slid their joined hands off his face, holding her smaller hand between his larger ones in his lap. A faint dusting of pink began to rise across Marinette’s nose and cheeks as she smiled shyly. “I’m going to be there regardless of whether I want to go or not so it’s not like we have a choice to skip my 18th.”

“You know we’re going to throw you a party Adrien-style after your dad’s big ass fiesta, right?” Nino scratched the side of his face as Alya cleaned her glasses on a small wipe she’d pulled from his pocket, his eyes trained on his best friend as he spoke. “Laser tag, a cake made by Mari, Luka’s houseboat decked out in fairy lights, you know, the usual.” Nino shrugged.

“Sounds great, Nino,” Giving a sincere half smile, Adrien nudged Mari with his shoulder slightly. “But Father has invited Chat Noir and Ladybug so how are we going to get them in attendance if Miss Dupain-Cheng and I are going to be the centre of attention?”

A smirk curved on Alya’s lips as a devious twinkle lit in her amber eyes. Nino’s eyes flicked between his girlfriend and their friends as thinly veiled terror sparked in his eyes, he knew that look too well and it meant that Alya was planning something. Too often, the plan didn’t include telling him until after it had gone very right or extremely wrong.

“Rena Rouge at your service, milady and milord,” Pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, Alya’s grin grew wider as her three friends came to the realisation of what plan was cooking in her insane and intelligent mind. “If you need to see double, leave it to me.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“Maman? Papa?” Pushing the door of the bakery open with her shoulder, Marinette called out to her parents with a sweet sing-song voice. She could hear her father bustling through the kitchen in the back, the smell of baking cinnamon and date bread wafting through the beautiful interior of the bakery and reminding Mari of childhoods full of sticky dough and soft laughs, calloused hands teaching her how to make a perfect braided loaf as her mother sang gentle songs in Mandarin. 

“Marinette?” Closing the door behind her to keep the heat in, Marinette was greeted by the small, flour dusted figure of her mother, Sabine. There was a small apron wrapped around Sabine’s waist to protect her pants from the bakers flour that was an inescapable part of her life and to make wiping her hands that much easier. “Let me take your coat.”

Sabine reached to help Marinette remove her fleece lined jacket but was waved away by her daughter, Marinette comfortable with taking off her coat by herself and that she wouldn’t offend her mother by not accepting her help. 

“There is something for you, it came in the mail,” Sabine spoke with a slightly lilted accent that wasn’t the French Mari had grown up hearing. Her father had met her mother in Nanjing, China, and it had been love at first sight for the apprentice baker and seamstress’s daughter. Tom himself came out of the kitchen and leaned against one of the glass cabinets holding hundreds of beautifully made rolls, donuts, loaves and other baked goods as his wife gave their daughter a thick letter with a wax seal. 

“What’s this, Maman?” Pointing to the wax seal with a long finger, Mari looked at her mother with confusion. She’d gotten letters before, Grandmaman sent so many from her travels but she’d never gotten any letters with a large dollop of wax on them.

“That’s a wax seal, Marinette, the markings here,” Sabine ran her fingers over the Agreste family crest. “Are the crest of the Agreste family. I saw Gabriel Agreste extend an invitation to his son’s birthday to Ladybug and Chat Noir so I can only have the assumption that this is your very own invitation because you are a classmate of his son.”

“Open it, Mari,” Tom Dupain sounded more excited for his daughter to open the letter than Marinette herself was. She knew what it was but she’d thought she’d at least have a bit more time before telling her parents that she had a boyfriend. Mari knew that Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng could take things a bit far sometimes and she wasn’t sure if she was ready to subject poor Adrien to it just yet. “Maybe we’ve been asked to cater it?”

Sabine shot Tom a withering look that shut him up immediately, Marinette giggled at her parents before she carefully broke the wax seal and freed the note.

“Dear Miss Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Gabriel Agreste would like to formally invite you to the 18th birthday celebration of his son, Adrien, at La Chateau du Agreste in Alsace. Dress in your finest and present this card at the door,” Marinette pulled a small card with beautiful calligraphy emblazoned across it, the thin outline of the words gilded in gold leaf. “So that we may address you properly. Accommodation will be provided for you and your parents at the Chateau itself. Adrien and I look forward to celebrating with you, sincerely, Gabriel Agreste.”

Deftly, Sabine plucked the card out of Marinette’s fingers with light fingers as Mari finished reading the letter out loud. 

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adrien’s girlfriend?”


	15. Chapter 15

“You have a boyfriend, Marinette?” Tom’s moustache shook slightly as he looked at his only child with wide, surprised eyes. Juxtaposing her husband’s almost betrayed surprise, Sabine smiled broadly at Marinette and placed a gentle hand on her daughter’s arm.

“What is his name?” Marinette tried to hide behind her fringe to avoid the question, the thick papered letter held in her now shaking hands. She wasn’t embarrassed to be with Adrien but she really didn’t want her Dad to go all papa-bear like he had when Chat Noir had turned down Mari’s ‘affections’. Chat Noir returned those affections now, of course, but that didn’t make Mari any less worried of how far her Dad would go to protect her against anyone breaking her heart.

“A-Adrien,” Sabine tilted her head slightly, trying to conjure up a face to put to the name. A spark lit in the small woman’s eyes as she realised who Marinette was talking about.

“Adrien Agreste?” Crossing the room of the bakery to a small end table beside two comfortable felt chairs, Sabine rifled through a small stack of magazines and pulled out one with Adrien on the front, dressed in his father’s designs from two seasons ago. “This boy is your boyfriend?”

Marinette nodded sheepishly and felt a prickle down the back of her neck. Tom’s demeanor had changed, he’d almost deflated against the cabinet as the corners of his lips curved down in a saddened frown.

“Papa, what’s wrong?” Walking to her father, Mari placed a gentle hand on his large forearm and met his eyes with sincere worry. She knew what was wrong but after having lived with Tom Dupain for nearly 18 years, Marinette knew that her father didn’t like to keep his emotions to himself. There had been a time, once, before Marinette was born, when Tom had keep his emotions bottled up and it had driven him to an edge he almost didn’t return from but some time spent with several different counsellors, repairing his relationship with his father and sister, and telling Sabine the truth of what was making him lash out had made him into the caring, open man he was today. Tom was an advocate for men speaking up about their emotions and accepting that they had them, Marinette and Sabine couldn’t be more proud of him in that respect because Sabine had grown up surrounded by very cagey men and Mari had seen how lack of affection between boys had negatively affected her male friends. 

“You’re growing up, Marinette, and I’m just a bit sad that you are,” There was a small hesitation before he spoke, as if he was trying to choose his words carefully. Normally Tom spoke his mind and spoke from the heart so the ever so slight pause before he spoke told Marinette and Sabine that there was something more than just sadness over her growth.

“I know that’s not everything, Papa,” Mari spoke gently, squeezing her father’s arm slightly so he knew that she was there and was going to be fine with anything she had to say.

“You are too smart for your own good,” He laughed slightly, a strain in the normally whole sound. “I don’t want this boy to hurt you and I’m worried that he will.”

“Why are you worried that he will hurt me, Papa?” Sabine walked to the door of the bakery and flicked the open sign to closed, adjusting the small timer on the door to say that they’d be open again in about an hour. Pulling the shutter down to keep some privacy for her husband and daughter, Sabine gave a small smile of encouragement to Tom. There was nothing for him to worry about, Marinette loved her father for who he was and knew of his past, he didn’t have to treat her any differently when they spoke about her relationship than he would when they spoke normally.

Tom sighed heavily and moved his arm so he could hold Marinette’s hand in his. “This boy, Adrien, is famous and I’m worried that fame may drive him to do wrong by you. You are a sweet girl, a sensitive girl, and you don’t deserve to have someone treat you carelessly,” He squeezed Mari’s hand gently. “I know that I was very intense when Chat Noir came over after you said you had a crush on him and that intensity came from my worry. I was worried that he wouldn’t treat you like you deserve to be treated and then I became angry that he was turning you down because he was missing out on the wonderful girl that my wife and I had raised with so much love.”

“Oh, Tom,” Hearing her husband’s words, Sabine walked to him, wrapping her small arms around his thick waist and pressing a kiss to his sternum. “You are tai di xiong.”

“Tai di xiong?” Despite over 20 years of marriage, Tom’s understanding of Mandarin still wasn’t the best. 

“A teddy bear,” Marinette had been studying Mandarin with Adrien in their spare time and knew enough to be able to ask her mother, in Mandarin, to help her learn her mother’s native tongue. “She thinks you’re a teddy bear, Papa.”

Sabine nodded vigorously as Marinette rounded the cabinet and hugged her parents, breathing in the smell of freshly baked bread and caramelised sugar that clung to their clothes. 

“We would like to meet him before we go to Alsace, though,” Sabine broke the silence, her words definite. There was no way Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain were letting Marinette go to a big fancy celebration in Alsace without having met her boyfriend first, even if they themselves were going to be at the party.

“Of course you will, Maman and Papa, I can see if you can meet him tomorrow if you’d like?”

“If he has the time, that would be wonderful,” Sabine cut Tom off before he could get his words out, effectively silencing her husband. “What does he like to eat?”

“Um…,” Scrunching her face as she wracked her brain for something easy to make that Adrien enjoyed, Marinette rubbed her lips together slightly. There’s no way her mother and father weren’t going to make something just for Adrien but she knew that her boyfriend wasn’t a huge fan of people going out of their way to do special things for him. He’d led a pampered life and knowing that people had put heaps of effort into even small things made him uncomfortable; he’d tried to give the scarf she’d made him for his birthday several years ago back after he’d found out that she’d made it specially for him because he felt like she deserved the keep something she’d put so much time and love into. It had taken her almost two weeks to convince him to keep it and now he wore it as much as he possibly could. “He likes banana bread?”

“You sound unsure,” Of course Tom had noticed how long it had taken Marinette to think of something. “But we’ll make banana bread anyway.”

“Thank you, Papa,” Mari’s voice was slightly strained as Tom began squeezing his daughter and wife into one last hug, smiling broadly before letting go and escaping back to the kitchen.

“He is a good man, your father,” Sabine wrapped her arms around Marinette, hugging her daughter as the sound of Tom’s baking hum began to rise from the kitchen behind them. “We are lucky to have him.”

“I know, Maman,” Resting her cheek against her much shorter mother’s temple, Mari enjoyed the nurturing presence that came with such an embrace. “I’m glad that he’s still here.”

Pulling back slightly, Sabine rested a rough hand against Marinette’s cheek and smiled sadly up at her daughter. “If he wasn’t here, we wouldn’t have you and you make both of us very happy, Marinette. I know that he still struggles with his depression sometimes, and it can be a very hard thing, but we gave him something to live for, Gongzhu, and I thank the heavens everyday that I wake up with him by my side,”

Marinette couldn’t think of anything to say. She knew her father’s story and she knew that Sabine had nearly lost him so many years ago but the thought of her cheerful father being so low and so lost that he didn’t feel the need to be alive anymore was jarring. 

“Your name has meaning for him. It has meaning for me too but I chose your name to remind him how far he has come every time he says it,”

“Marinette means ‘of the sea’, it’s derived from the word ‘marine’, right?” Sabine nodded.

“Cheng, the way my family pronounces it means completed, succeeded or finished, though there is a similar pronunciation that means sincere, honest and true that I made sure your father knew about because he is the most sincere, true man I have ever met in my life,” The two women turned toward the open door of the kitchen as Tom walked past it with a jolly whistling tune as he moved baked bread out of the oven and onto a cooling tray. “You are succeeded of the sea because the sea is where I nearly lost him but it is also where he found himself again. Your birth marked a turning point for him, he was finished with the side of his life that had only ever damaged him and was now ready to begin a life with people who will always love him, support him, stay with him. You saved him as much as I did because he wanted to be a better father than the one he’d had.”

Wiping an escaped tear from her cheek, Marinette watched her father bustle back and forth as he worked, her mind drifting to Adrien. Tom and Adrien had common ground in lacking good father figures, so maybe there was more than just Marinette’s love for her to offer him. Maybe she could give him the family he deserved, the family he’d been deprived of because of Gabriel’s selfishness.

“Adrien’s father isn’t much of a father, Maman,” The words were whispered, Marinette tried not to feel guilty for speaking them. “Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth.”

If Sabine was surprised, her kind features didn’t show it. “A-Adrien and I are Ladybug and Chat Noir,”

“I know, Gongzhu, I already know,” 

“Y-you know that Adrien and I are...are Ladybug and Chat Noir?”

“I have known for a long time,” Sabine spoke gently. “Master Fu was known to me before he was known to you, my great-grandfather was a guardian of a miraculous box which my cousin now guards with his life and it is common for guardians to know each other as well as each other’s families. I met Master Fu when I was barely older than you are now, I knew of what he guarded and what the Ladybug and Cat miraculouses could do if joined. When I suspected that he had given you the Ladybug, I visited him and he confirmed it for me, I did my best to make sure you were able to leave the house when you needed to so you could protect us.”  
“You’re incredible, Maman,”

“Thank you, my darling,” A warm smile curved on Sabine’s lips as a faint crimson began to flare on her cheeks, Sabine had never been the best at receiving compliments even if they came from her family and Mari would never know how much those words meant to her in that moment. “Your father does not know though and I don’t recommend that you tell him as it would heighten his worry for you. I am very proud of you, though, my little piao chong, you have gone above and beyond what you needed to, you have protected so many people and saved so many lives.”

Marinette pulled her mother into another hug, holding back tears at the genuine pride she could hear in her mother’s voice.

“Thank you so much,” Hiccuping slightly, Mari squeezed Sabine, who squeezed back. “Thank you so, so, so, so much.”

“You are the light of our lives, Marinette, and there is not a day that goes by that we aren’t proud of the woman you are becoming,”


	16. Chapter 16

Holding Adrien’s hand in her own, Marinette held the door of the bakery open for her boyfriend as he entered. He’d been to the bakery millions of times but hadn’t had the chance to actually meet Marinette’s parents, let alone meet them as her boyfriend. He was nervous, they’d met him as Chat Noir and he’d ended up making Marinette’s father so angry that he was akumatized; Adrien didn’t want to do that to Mr Dupain again.

“Hello, Adrien,” Tom spoke as evenly as he could. This meeting was nothing like the one he’d had with Chat Noir so many years ago now. This boy loved his daughter and was here to meet her parents as someone who cared deeply for her, but that still didn’t quell the angry worry rising in his chest at the thought of this golden haired boy breaking his daughter’s heart like Chat Noir had. Awkwardly, Tom stuck out his hand.

“Hello, Mr Dupain,” Adrien firmly shook Tom’s hand, smiling slightly as Marinette released his other one and shrugged off her coat, folding it over her arm. “It’s wonderful to finally meet you.”

“You must be Adrien!” Sabine appeared at the bottom of the stairs up the the apartment above with her short hair pulled back into a low, messy bun. She smiled at the boy who returned it with a sheepish half smile before Tom let go of his hand so Mari could take his coat for him. Crossing the room, Sabine appraised her daughter’s boyfriend with scrutinising eyes, scanning left and right and up and down before her shoulders rolled back and she pulled him into a sudden hug. “It is wonderful to meet you, come upstairs!”

Adrien’s cheeks had flared crimson as Sabine released him and led him up to the apartment, chattering about the pastries and things she had set out upstairs for him.

“He’s remarkably calm,” Crossing his arms, Tom watched Sabine and Adrien disappear up the stairs as Marinette hung their coats on a coat rack near the door into the bakery. 

“Well, his father isn’t the most emotive type so Adrien is used to stonewalling. I’ll tell you now though, Papa, that he is terrified that you won’t like him,” Tom chuckled deeply, glancing at his daughter before the two of them began to make their own way upstairs. Pausing slightly before they reached the top, Mari turned to face her father. “He’s amazing, Papa, and I really want you to give him a chance because I think you two will get along very well. Adrien doesn’t have the best home life and I don’t want him thinking he’s unwelcome here because the least he deserves is his girlfriend’s family treating him nicely.”

“I know, Mari,” Tom’s voice was sad, slightly dismayed that his daughter had sensed his apprehension toward Adrien more suddenly than he’d expected her to. “He looked very strange when your mother hugged him, almost as if he hasn’t gotten a proper hug in a long time.”

“First of all, ouch,” Mari jokingly put her hand over her heart as she joked, eliciting a small laugh from her father. “Second of all, his mother passed away a few years ago and his father really doesn’t show affection of any kind beyond what the public sees. I think Maman hugging him is the first time in ages that he’s felt like he’s not missing something. If you know what I mean?”

Smiling sadly, Tom remembered his own childhood and how harsh his father had been on him. How he’d spent too long unaware of how whole physical affection like a hug or even simply squeezing someone’s hand could make him feel. It saddened him to know that his beloved Marinette had found someone like him when he’d been Adrien’s age, though Adrien was coping remarkably better than Tom had been at that stage of his life, but he was proud that she’d brought him home to meet her family who were more than willing to love him where his family had not.

“I think I know what you mean, Mari,” The two continued up the stairs to find Sabine and Adrien sitting at the dining room table with steaming mugs of tea in front of them as they spoke in rapid fire Mandarin. Adrien’s pronunciation was perfect, as usual, and Tom struggled to hold in a broad grin as he saw how lit up his wife was to be talking in her native tongue to someone who spoke as quickly and as well as she did. Sabine didn’t visit her family much, they often came over to visit her in Paris, and she hadn’t realised that she’d missed the sound of natural conversation in Mandarin. Walking to his wife, Tom pressed a kiss to the top of Sabine’s head before both Adrien and Sabine dropped out of Mandarin and into French.

“He speaks Mandarin, Tom!” Sabine was visibly excited. “This boy, Marinette, is a keeper, do not let him go.”

Both Marinette and Adrien flushed before Mari slipped into the empty seat beside her boyfriend and poured herself a cup of peppermint tea from the steaming pot in front of Adrien.

“I’m sorry for how I greeted you, Adrien,” Tom took his seat beside Sabine. “It was rude of me, I was quite nervous to meet you but I was probably less nervous than you are to meet us.” Sabine looked up at her husband with a loving smile, she was proud of him. This apology wasn’t one she’d expected him to give.

“It’s alright, Mr Dupain, I can imagine that my father will be very much the same when he meets Mari for the first time,” 

“Please, call me Tom. As long as you’re with Marinette, you’re family,” The words were sincere, making Marinette’s heart light with happiness as she saw the subtle changes in Adrien’s face as he held back tears. He hadn’t thought that Mr Dupain would hate him but he also hadn’t thought that he’d call him family so soon. “Marinette told me that your father isn’t the most…,” Tom paused for a moment. “Physically affectionate person and I want to let you know that we’re huggers. I don’t want you to feel left out and I really don’t want you to feel like you can’t ask us, both Sabine and I, for a hug if you need one.”

“T-thank you,” Adrien wasn’t sure what to say. 

“I won’t touch too long on what it’s like to have an awful parent but my father wasn’t the most affectionate either and it impacted me badly later in life,” Tom met Adrien’s eyes with reassurance. “You’re not alone and you’re never unwelcome here if you need to escape. You won’t be staying in Marinette’s room of course, but our guest room is always open to you if you need it.”

“Consider Tom and I your second set of parents, Adrien,” Sabine leaned forward slightly and placed her small hand on Adrien’s as a single tear slipped down his cheek, Mari rubbing his back lightly to remind him that this was real and that he deserved it. “And please don’t call us Mr Dupain and Ms Cheng, we’re not overly formal people. You are more than welcome to call us by our first names, Sabine and Tom, or even Maman and Papa like Marinette does as long as it feels comfortable for you to.”

~~~~~~~~~

“Chloe?” Answering her phone with an air of confusion, Marinette couldn’t remember how or why she had Chloe’s number saved to her phone.

“Hi Marinette, I hope I’m not intruding with my call,” Chloe sounded genuine, though there was still a lingering sense in the back of Marinette’s mind that it wasn’t sincere. There had been many changes to Chloe in the past few months with her coming out to her parents, a huge fight with her mum over her sexuality and the barely written plans on how to get the butterfly Miraculous away from Gabriel Agreste, but Marinette was nothing if not wary of the girl who used to bully her so badly. “Is this a good time?”

Adrien had gone home an hour ago, tears in his eyes and his bag stuffed with the best baked goods her parents could supply. Her father had taken to calling him ‘my son’ already and her mother was raving about his aptitude in Mandarin, both demanding to know when he’d come back to the point that Mari had escaped to her bedroom and locked the trapdoor down to the lower level of the house to keep her parents out.

“As good a time as any,” Trying not to let her caution seep into her tone, Marinette sat down on the pink swivel chair in front of her desk.

“I heard Adrien met your parents today?” 

“Yeah, he did,” How could Chloe possi-Adrien had been her friend since childhood, of course he would’ve told her that he was going to meet Marinette’s parents today. 

“How’d it go? I haven’t heard anything from him since he left this morning and I know that no news can be good news but in this case I just want to know how everything went,” Marinette smiled at Chloe’s words. Maybe she’d been too quick to judge when she’d picked up the phone, Chloe genuinely cared about Adrien and this call proved it. Chloe had Sabrina afterall, and she was fully out and happy with her identity so any worried Mari had once had about Chloe and Adrien were beginning to dissipate. 

“It went really well, my parents keep asking when he’s going to come back,” Mari couldn’t keep the smile out of her voice as Chloe cheered happily from the other end of the line.

“Hold on one sec, Mari, Sabby wants to ask me something,”

“Sure, I’m not going anywhere,” So Sabrina was at Chloe’s house and Chloe had still made the decision to call her best friend’s girlfriend to see how everything had gone today? Maybe it lost her some points in the good girlfriend book but won her a million in the best best friend book in Marinette’s mind.

“Sabby wants to know if I can put the phone on loudspeaker, she’d like to hear about how everything went too. Is that alright?” It was a first for Chloe to ask if she could put the phone on loudspeaker, she generally did it anyway, but Marinette agreed and returned Sabrina’s chirped ‘hello’ with one of her own. “So, did Adrien talk to you about the party his dad is throwing at all?”  
“No, he didn’t. I got a letter in the mail yesterday from Gabriel with a little card thing that says my name and ‘Adrien’s girlfriend’ on it, which is a little weird,” 

“Well, you are his girlfriend,” Sabrina giggled, Marinette could almost see the look on Chloe’s face at hearing Sabrina laugh. They’d been together for two months and Chloe was absolutely smitten with her red-haired girlfriend, what once had been an almost master/servant relationship where Chloe had ruled everything and not taken no for an answer had turned into something balanced, something equal; even though Chloe almost appeared to worship the ground Sabrina walked on. “But he and his dad had a huge fight about it when he got home yesterday and Adrien’s been a bit off, if you know what I mean, since it happened. He called me after and I really don’t think I’ve ever heard him so angry.”

“So, he wasn’t even as angry as when your mother went off at you after you came out?” The subject was still touchy but Chloe’s laugh was immediate, Sabrina in the background chuckling nervously. Marinette hadn’t meant to ask the question as a joke but she took Chloe’s response as a sign that she was coming to terms with her mother’s outburst. Audrey had said that she’d never accept her daughter for being gay and had tried to turn Andre against Chloe too, but the Mayor of Paris had stood by his beloved daughter and banished his estranged wife from their house until such a time as she could love Chloe for who she was.

“Not that angry, I think that was the only time in my entire life, and I’ve known him my entire life, I’ve seen him want to punch someone but this anger, it was a mix of, well, anger and betrayal,”

“Hmmm,” Marinette couldn’t think of anything to say but her hummed response was the closest she could get to showing Chloe how her heart was bleeding for Adrien after those words.

“He was really looking forward to today though, when I mentioned it to him this morning he perked up. He was really, really nervous to meet your parents but he was excited too and I’m so happy to hear that it went well,”

“Thanks, Chloe,” Marinette smiled and relaxed back into her chair, tucking her leg up underneath herself as she spun slightly. “He seemed to have a good time, my parents have practically adopted him.”

“That’s really good!” There was no missing the sincere happiness in Chloe’s tone, or the slight thump and following ‘oof’ as Sabrina launched herself at Chloe and snuggled into her. “He needs a win, it’s been a while since he’s had one.”

“Yeah,” Mari trailed off slightly. Since finding out that Gabriel was Hawkmoth, Adrien had been struggling with his mental state. There were times when he wasn’t any different to how he was normally but there were also times when he struggled to speak, when the mention of home shut him down, when even seeing his father on a TV screen made him distant. She’d been tempted to message Nathalie and tell her that Adrien wasn’t having the best time but she didn’t know what to say to her that wouldn’t give away Adrien and Marinette’s identities. 

“Hey, Mari, don’t worry,” Chloe used Marinette’s nickname for the first time ever, but the way she said it wasn’t cruel or vindictive, just calming and reassuring, the best she could hope to provide her best friend’s girlfriend when she knew both of them were struggling. “Adrien is tough and once we’ve sorted everything out with his dad, I’m sure he’s going to be fine. Nathalie came over here the other day to talk to dad and I kinda eavesdropped a bit-.”

“Chloe! No!” Sabrina reprimanded Chloe, smacking her lightly on the arm.

“I’m a curious person, Sabby, cut me some slack,” Mari laughed slightly, she wanted to hear why Nathalie had gone to see Mayor Bourgeoisie. “But Nathalie had come over to talk to dad about getting emancipation papers for Adrien.”

“Emancipation papers?” So Adrien wanted to be emancipated from his father? But that would mean that he would no longer have a fund for university and he would be completely alone in the world, without a home or a family.

“Yeah, I wasn’t too excited to hear her say that because, god knows, Adrien wants to go to university and I’m not sure he has enough in his personal bank account to cover it but Nathalie then asked about adoption papers. She wants to adopt Adrien,”

Mari’s heart grew lighter. He’d spoken about Nathalie a lot, she’d been the one to look after him after his mother had passed and basically been both parents to him since he could remember; if she was going to adopt him then there was no doubt in Marinette’s mind that he was going to be loved and cared for.

“That’s great news!”

“I totally agree, I’ve seen how much she loves him and he really does deserve to have a parent, a legal parent that is, who puts the effort in to be there for him. And once we defeat Hawkmoth, it’s okay, Sabby knows who we are and she’d promised me to keep yours and the others identities a secret. I’d trust Sabby with my life, but once we defeat Hawkmoth, it’s likely that Gabriel will end up in jail and Adrien will inherit the whole Agreste fortune, which is more money than he knows what to do with, but it should be able to cover university for him as well as any court proceedings that need to be done to make sure she gets full custody of Adrien,”

“Chloe, I can’t thank you enough for telling me this. I seriously can’t,”

“It’s alright, Marinette, if it was Sabby in Adrien’s shoes, I’d want you to tell me what you knew so I could better support her. Plus, Adrien really needs his girlfriend by his side for the next few weeks at the very least, he’s not a party kinda person and interacting with large crowds makes him uncomfortable,” Adrien was a model who didn’t like large crowds of people, he’d explained to Mari that it was different when he was on the runway, everyone could see him but he couldn’t see them and they made no effort to talk to him, just about what he was wearing. But the minute he was off the runway and in the middle of a function, he hated the crowd that grew around him and the noise of people talking and music playing and glasses clinking made him feel like he was trapped. “But I think that he’ll be fine if you’re there with him. I’d love to be the one supporting him but it’s time for me to step back because he has you now and he really doesn’t need me trying to play a protector/girlfriend/mother role when he has both you and Nathalie. I’m still going to be his best friend, but I’ll let you do the girlfriend stuff, alright?”

“Thanks, Chloe,” Mari laughed, spinning on her chair again slightly.

“I do have a favour to ask and it is one I can pay you for but I completely understand if you can’t do it,”

“What is it?” Leaning forward slightly, Marinette furrowed her brow as the phone became hot against her ear.

“Well, would you do me the honour of designing my dress for Adrien’s birthday ball? I’ve seen your designs and they’re amazing and I would love to wear one for the ball. If you can’t do it though, if it’s not enough time, I’ll scavenge something from my mum’s closet and wear that to spite her,”

Chloe...Chloe was asking her to design and make a dress for Adrien’s birthday ball? Was this even real? Marinette was so sure that Chloe’s father knew thousands of designers who could make a dress for Chloe but she’d asked her, she’d asked Marinette Dupain-Cheng, to make one for her.

“T-that would be incredible, Chloe!” Chloe wearing one of her designs was going to be incredible! She had the build of a supermodel and was a perfect canvas for a design of dress Marinette had been working on for just over six months. Mari had thought the design would suit Alya but after making the mock-up dress, the style had made her look shorter and more blocky than she was. Alya had taken the disaster dress in good humour but Marinette had almost abandoned it due to embarrassment, now Chloe was here with her height and slender frame to provide Marinette with the saving grace she needed to be able to complete the dress. 

“Yes! Are you free tomorrow at all?”

Mari pulled her calendar up on her computer, today was Sunday and she had school tomorrow but she finished at 1:15 so she had all afternoon free. Adrien had fencing practice then ballroom dancing classes so she wasn’t going to be able to spend much time with him tomorrow anyway.

“I’m free from 1:15,”  
“I finish at 12, so we can meet outside school after you’re done and then go fabric shopping,”

“Sounds great,” Marinette’s smile stretched from ear to ear as she spun slowly on her chair.

“I’ll cover everything, by the way, you’re already making the dress for me and I will pay you for it once it’s done but I’ll buy the fabric too because, knowing me, I’m going to pick something really expensive and delicate and I don’t want to send you broke,” Both girls laughed, Sabrina joining in with a giggled joke about how only Chloe would make making a dress into climbing Everest. 

“Awesome, then I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“You can count on it,” 

“Alright, bye Chloe, bye Sabrina,”

“Bye Marinette!” The phone conversation ended, Mari swinging on her chair before releasing a loud cheer.

“You sound happy, purr-incess, good news?” She spun, seeing Adrien dressed as Chat leaning against the frame of her open balcony doors with his arms crossed loosely and a charming half-smile playing on his lips.

~~~~~~~~~

Snuggling into Chloe’s side, Sabrina felt her girlfriend begin to play with the loose strands of her auburn hair, rubbing her fingers slightly against her scalp.

“If there was enough time, I’d get Marinette to design a dress for you too, Sabby,” Chloe pressed a soft kiss to the top of Sabrina’s head. “But I don’t want to overwhelm her and I really want her to know that I’m sincere about being her friend. I’ve been so awful to her in the past and I’ve been so awful to you too and I don’t want to be awful anymore.”

“You’re not awful, Chloe, you were young and misguided but the fact that you’re trying to be a better person now means that you’ve change and you’ve done it for the better,” 

“I don’t deserve you, Sabby,” There was a sadness in Chloe’s voice that made Sabrina’s heart ache.

“Yes, you do, and I never want to hear you say those words ever again,” Sabrina sat up and looked Chloe dead in the eye, the blonde girl giving her full attention to her girlfriend instead of the movie playing behind her. “Who stood up to your mother when she lost her shit about you being gay?”

“I did…,”

“Who went out of her way to tell me that she loved me even though she thought I wouldn’t return her feelings?”

“Um...me...I did,”

“Who is trying her absolute hardest to repair the relationship between her and her childhood best friend’s new girlfriend not because her best friend asked her to but because she wants to?”

“Me,”

“We can’t all be wonderful people all the time, Chloe, and sometimes you need to go through a period where you’re so lost that you can’t let others help you find your way, you’re out of that period in your life now. You’ve come out the other side and you found your own way there,” Sabrina grabbed Chloe’s hand and squeezed it tightly, tears welling in the redhead’s eyes. “Your past does not define you, it’s what you choose to do now. If you choose to be a good person, to rebuild what has been broken and forge new bonds, then you are worthy of anything. If you choose to go back to being a heartless bitch, then I’ll slap you out of it because that’s not who you are.”

“You’re wonderful all the time, Sabby,” Chloe wrapped her girlfriend into a hug, resting her chin on top of Sabrina’s head. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Probably die,” Wriggling further into Chloe’s embrace, Sabrina smiled broadly and released a small hum, something almost akin to a purr.

“You’re probably right,”


	17. Chapter 17

Toying with the kiss clasp of her purse nervously, Marinette waited out the front of Francois Dupont college for Chloe. Six months ago, if someone had told her that she would be heading out on a shopping trip with Chloe Bourgeois she wouldn’t have believed them but here she was, equipped with her sketchbook, measuring tape and other essentials for designing a dress, waiting for her ex-bully to arrive. Light footsteps tapped down the concrete staircase behind her, Marinette turned slightly and was met with the broadly smiling face of her new friend as she descended the stairs.

“Hi, I’m sorry I’m a bit late, I had to call Daddy to make sure he’d taken his heart medication,” Pushing an escaped lock of hair from her fringe behind her ear with her fingertips, Chloe seemed almost out of breath. “He’s been on it for two weeks and he’s just so busy that sometimes he forgets to take it.”

“It’s alright, Chloe,” Mari smiled warmly at the other girl. It was sweet to hear that Chloe was taking care of her father and that he, in turn, was taking care of her. Adrien, with Chloe’s permission, had told Marinette how Chloe’s mother had responded when she’d come out as gay, so it warmed Marinette’s heart to know that at least one of her friend’s parents was supportive, even if he wasn’t in the best of health. “Is he okay?”

“Yeah, he’s okay, just really busy with mayor stuff, you know?” Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Chloe stood awkwardly for a moment before Mari pulled her into a hug. “Oh,” There was a single moment of hesitation before Chloe wrapped her arms around Marinette and hugged her back.

“My Dad always says that everyone can use a hug sometimes and I thought that you could use one right now,” Squeezing Chloe briefly before pulling away, Marinette grinned at her.

“T-thank you, Marinette,” Not that she’d ever admit it but Chloe was beginning to feel the sting of tears in her eyes. She’d been so awful to Marinette in the past but the other girl had just shown her such a level of affection she had never thought she’d be worthy of.

“Hey,” Mari rubbed Chloe’s arm before looping it through her own. “Your past doesn’t define you, it’s what you choose to do in the future that does.”

“Sabby said the same thing,” Chloe laughed as they began to walk down the street toward the boutique district. The girls had agreed to look at the colours that were in fashion for this season before they began picking out fabrics for Chloe’s dress.

“Great minds think alike, I guess,” Nudging Chloe with her shoulder, Marinette giggled. 

~~~~~~~

“Yellow looks really good on you but we have to make sure to pick the right shade,” Pressing her sketchbook to her chest, Marinette scanned her eyes across the reams and reams of fabric stacked up before her. There had been such a wide range of colours and styles on display in the boutiques that Mari and Chloe had decided to stick to the basics, which, for Chloe, was yellow and silver. They’d sat in the park together for about an hour before coming to the fabric shop as Marinette showed Chloe the design she wanted to use for her dress and Chloe described any things she wanted added or changed about it until both girls had agreed completely on it. 

“What do you mean?” Chloe was so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of fabric packed into this one room that she’d had to take a seat on the small, leather chair pushed into the corner of the room behind where Mari was standing.  
“Well, you look really good in cold toned yellow but there are so many warm toned ones here that it might be hard to find the right one. We don’t want a patterned fabric because you’re already stunning enough as is and we don’t want to drown you out,”

“Oh, okay,” A small blush began to tinge Chloe’s cheeks. Marinette thought she was stunning and, with how new this friendship was, it was strange to hear her say so. “What about that one?”

Mari followed where Chloe was pointing to with her eyes, the tip of her finger indicating to a pale yellow silk two shelves above where Marinette was looking. Standing on her tiptoes, Mari grabbed the edge of the cardboard roll the fabric was wrapped around and tugged it free of it’s confines. Holding the soft fabric in her hands, Marinette rubbed it between her fingers and admired the shifting shine of the fabric in the warm lights of the shop.

“Can you come here for a moment, Chloe?” Pushing her phone into her pocket, Chloe got up from the chair and crossed over to Marinette, dodging crates of fabric cluttering the floor. Holding the fabric out, Mari rested a corner of the fabric over Chloe’s wrist, chewing her lip. “I think this one might be it.”

“I totally agree,” Eyes wide, Chloe admired the shift between lemon and butter in the fabric, the small swatch looking as though it had been made to bring out the honey-golden tones in Chloe’s pale skin. “And I’ll wear silver jewellery with it?”

“Yes! The silver will make the yellow look brighter,” Rolling the ream back up and slipping the rubber band she’d taken off it back into place, Marinette grinned at Chloe. “Let’s get this then get back to mine so I can take your measurements.”

~~~~~~~

Pacing around her office, Nathalie wrung her hands until the skin was tinged red. Ladybug and Chat Noir hadn’t contacted her for a while, Adrien’s party was in two weeks and Gabriel seemed to only be getting more and more fixated on all the things he was going to do once he had stolen their miraculouses. She’d sent them messages telling them not to come to the party, saying that their plan to sleuth Nooroo away from him wasn’t going to work because he would be paying just as much attention to them as they were to him and there wasn’t a chance in hell that they’d be able to sneak away without alerting Gabriel to what they were doing. Nathalie couldn’t explain why she had a feeling deep in the pit of her gut that said that Gabriel knew that Ladybug and Chat Noir were aware of his secret identity but it was there and it wouldn’t go away.

A shallow knock sounded from the other side of Nathalie’s office door, startling her out of her worried stupor. 

“Who is it?” Pausing her pacing, she looked at the door with wide eyes.   
“It’s Adrien,” The young man on the other side of the door responded with a smile in his voice. “Can I come in?”

“Uh, yes,” Crossing the room to the door, Nathalie disengaged the lock and pulled it open to reveal Adrien standing just beyond the threshold with a brown paper bag in his hand. “Come in.”

Holding up the brown paper bag, Adrien grinned at his father’s assistant. “I got us some eclairs from the Dupain-Cheng bakery,” Moving behind her desk, Nathalie gestured for Adrien to take the seat in front of her so they could eat together. “I got you a caramel eclair, your favourite.”

“You’re very considerate, Adrien,” Smiling warmly, sincerely, Nathalie watched the young man she saw as her son open the bag and pull out the most perfect caramel eclair she’d ever seen, as was expected from the Dupain-Cheng bakery after all. He handed her the eclair before he pulled his own one out and folded the bag neatly on the desk. “Was Marinette not at home when you went to the bakery?”

“Oh, I didn’t go to the bakery to see her,” Adrien laughed, taking a bite from his chocolate eclair, smearing whipped cream over his top lip which he licked off with a grin. “She was home, but I wanted to get us some afternoon tea because I feel like I don’t spend enough time with you lately.”

“That’s very sweet of you,” Nathalie took a hesitant bite of the eclair to hide how her cheeks were flushing from the sheer sweetness surrounding this little tete-a-tete with her boss’ son. The last time she’d felt this loved, Emilie had been sitting across a small iron table from her at a cafe on the Champs Elysees as they shared a citrus tart.

“I also thought it would be a good time to ask you to sign these,” Adrien’s cheeks tinged pink with embarrassment as he pulled a stack of papers out of the knapsack still slung over his shoulder and placed them in front of Nathalie as the woman herself wiped a small bead of caramel syrup off the corner of her lips. 

“What are they?” Wiping her sticky fingers on her fine, silken trousers, Nathalie leaned forward to inspect the papers. Normally, she would’ve been horrified at the thought of wiping something as sticky and staining as caramel on anything that wasn’t a washcloth but at this point in time, she didn’t care.

Adrien paused for a moment, eclair still held in his long, pianists fingers. “Adoption papers,” Nathalie’s eyes blew wide and flew up to meet Adrien’s gaze. 

“A-adoption papers? W-w...Why would I need t-to sign adoption p...papers?” 

“So you can be my mother legally too,” Unbeknownst to the person sitting opposite them, the words so I have someone to take care of me when Gabriel goes to prison for the crimes he’s committed as Hawkmoth rang unspoken in their minds. “You don’t have to sign them if you don’t want to, Nathalie.”

Tears had started to prickle in Nathalie’s eyes as she shifted her gaze between Adrien and the adoption papers before her. Reaching forward to grab the papers, sadness roiling in his gut, Adrien found Nathalie gripping his hand in hers as sparkling tears began to streak down her face.

“I’m going to sign them, Adrien,” Placing the eclair on her desk gently, Nathalie grabbed Adrien’s hands in both of hers, a coating of sticky residue remaining though neither of them could care right now. “I promise you that I’m going to sign them.”

“Why’re you crying?” He looked genuinely worried as Nathalie held back a happy sob.

“Because I’m happy, Adrien, I’m incredibly happy. This is the best gift anyone could have ever given me and,” She choked slightly, squeezing the young man’s hands. “And I would be honoured to be your mother.”

~~~~~~~~~

Heart lighter than it had been in much too long, Adrien, as Chat Noir, skipped over the rooftops of Paris. Nathalie was going to sign the papers tonight and take them into the mayor’s office tomorrow to make the adoption official; he and Marinette were doing great; Chloe was happy and was becoming the person he always knew she had the capacity to be; and they were going to stop Hawkmoth; things felt like they were beginning to fall into place. Reaching the rooftop across from the Dupain-Cheng bakery, Chat Noir leaned against a chimney pipe and watched the beautiful dark haired girl sitting on the balcony as she worked. He could watch her for hours, the way she sewed was mesmerising, from the small wrinkle that creased her forehead to the way her tongue poked past her lips slightly as she deftly passed the needle through the fabric at an impressive speed for a stitch so intricate. Heart constricting from the sheer enormity of what he felt for the young woman sitting and sewing, he felt a smile creep onto his lips as she looked up and eyes of depthless blue met ones of mirthful green.

Extending his baton, Chat carefully crossed the street and landed softly in front of Marinette, who had gently laid down what she was working on and stood. 

“Good evening, Chat Noir,” She teased, wind carefully ruffling her fringe as the loose hair drifting around her shoulders picked up like an inky curtain.

“Good evening, Miss Dupain-Cheng,” Slipping into the personality of Chat Noir that he’d once seen as nothing but an escape and a side of himself he’d never get the chance to show anyone, he circled Mari with his hands clasped behind his back and his tail swishing gently. “You’re looking stunning tonight.”  
Cheeks staining red, Mari let Chat grab her hand and press a kiss to the back of it with soft, slightly chapped, lips. 

“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, Chaton?” Giggling, Marinette interlaced her fingers with those of the blonde boy before her and squeezed his hand with measured strength. 

“You owe yourself the pleasure of this visit,” Hands still interlaced, Chat spun Marinette around so that her back was pressed against his chest and his free arm was clasped around her waist as they looked out over the twinkling lights of Paris. Pressing his cheek to the side of her head, feeling the girl into his arms melt into him, Chat inhaled the smell of fresh linen and caramel that seemed to follow Marinette wherever she went. “Because if you weren’t here, then I’d have to go to where you were and this would be a very different visit.”

“How’re you feeling? I know you came by the bakery today, Papa told me, but you didn’t ask for me,” Tilting her head back slightly, Mari looked up at her boyfriend with the smallest of pouts on her lips, the expression enough to send his heart racing all over again.

“I was getting afternoon tea for me and Nathalie-,”

“Nathalie and I,” Bumping him with her elbow, Marinette corrected his grammar with a barely restrained giggle.

“Nathalie and I,” Chat squeezed her slightly harder as she dissolved into a fit of giggles in his embrace. “And I asked her to sign the adoption papers.”

They were silent for a moment, Chat Noir’s chin resting on Marinette’s head as they stood together in the chilled Paris air, bathed in the light from Mari’s room and the caged fairy lights dancing around them like fireflies in the spring.

“She’s going to sign them,” He pressed a kiss to the crown of Mari’s head as she hummed happily, her own heart racing beneath their joined hands. 

“I’m so happy for you, Adrien,” She couldn’t express just how happy she was for him with words or with actions but she was happy because he sounded happy. “You know that you’ll always have a home with my family too, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Chat pressed another kiss to Marinette’s head. “But I also know that I have a home wherever you are.”

“What did I do to deserve you?” Mari was glad that he couldn’t see the crimson blush creeping up her neck and onto her cheeks from his words.

“Exist,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess what? These are all the chapters I have already written! Check my Tumblr (@PessimisticLatte) first to see when I update cause everything goes on there first.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUESS WHO FUCKING UPDATED? IT WAS ME! AND GUESS WHO HAS ANOTHER CHAPTER THAT'S GONNA BE POSTED TODAY? YOUR GUESS WAS CORRECT AGAIN BECAUSE IT'S ME. ENJOY!

The last two days had felt like the longest days of Adrien’s life. He’d been in Alsace with no one but Nathalie and the Gorilla for company while his father did god knows what. At least there hadn’t been any akuma attacks for the last couple of weeks as things led up to Adrien’s 18th birthday, the party he hadn’t wanted but that he’d gotten regardless because his father hadn’t planned it for Adrien, he’d planned it for himself. Adrien wasn’t going to complain about Nathalie’s company, he didn’t really have a reason to, but each time they ventured into the grounds surrounding the Agreste family estate (an actual fucking castle) he found himself missing Marinette more and more. She would be awed by the sheer beauty of the estate and the amount of people it took to keep the grounds looking as perfect as they always did, despite the fact that Adrien and Gabriel hadn’t been to the estate in years those gardeners still worked tirelessly to make sure the place looked perfect even if it’s masters might never return.

“Look over there,” Nathalie pulled Adrien out of his reverie as she pointed to a small patch of white, bell-shaped flowers. “I’d forgotten about the convallaria majalis that your mother had tried to grow here years ago now. It never seemed to take to the soil for some reason but now here it is! Growing!”

“Convallaria majalis?” Following Nathalie over toward the flowers, Adrien furrowed his brow in confusion. 

“Lily-of-the valley. The flowers are incredibly poisonous but also beautiful and one of your mother’s favourite plants to paint,” Adrien could feel Nathalie’s sorrow as she spoke of Emilie, the emotion so tangible and real that it made him ache for a woman he barely knew. “I could have watched her paint for hours.”

Unsure of what to do or how to act, Adrien reached for his old tutor’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, reassuring Nathalie that a part of the woman she’d loved so much was there with her. 

“She used to hate it when I used the latin names for things,” A small, sad smile began to tug at Nathalie’s lips as she remembered all the times she’d begun talking of botany and plant species only to have Emilie joke about being bored half to death. It hadn’t been until after Emilie had fallen ill and become comatose that Nathalie had realised that she was joking about hating how Nathalie could categorise almost every single plant they walked past with a mere glance. There weren’t many times in Nathalie Sancouer’s life that she felt like an idiot but being completely oblivious to Emilie’s rapture when she spoke of things that she loved was one that she would never live down. “Your mother used to joke that I should change my name to ‘Thesaurus Sancouer’ because I knew too many words for my own good.”

“The Painter and the Dictionary, seems like a good title for if I ever write a story of how you and Maman met,” Squeezing the older woman’s hand again, Adrien’s voice was joking. “Not that I ever would write a story about that, there are too many things I want to write about already.”

“I think that Emilie would be very proud of the man you’ve become, Adrien,” Turning to face him, Nathalie pushed her fingers up under her glasses to wipe away a single tear that was threatening to slip down her cheek. 

“I wouldn’t be anywhere near the person I am if you hadn’t been the one raising me, Mum,” The word felt so natural on his tongue as he spoke to Nathalie. She’d legally been his mother for the last two weeks and, though neither of them would admit it, knowing that they were legally bound as family for the rest of their lives made them both giddy. All Adrien had ever wanted was someone to love him unconditionally, in the past he’d wanted it to be his father so he’d crossed his own boundaries to be the son he thought Gabriel wanted, and now he had Nathalie, he’d always had Nathalie, who loved him for who he was and didn’t want her son to be anyone other than himself.

“I’m still very overwhelmed at being your mother. I know I’m the one who raised you but it’s a strange sensation to know that you are my son and to hear you call me ‘mum’,”

“Hey, I’m still blown away by the fact that you’d want to adopt me seeing as I’m almost a legal adult and all,” Releasing Nathalie’s hand, Adrien rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin.

“Well, there wasn’t an option to adopt a talking mouse named Stuart so I guess you’ll have to do,” Ruffling the blonde boy’s hair, the two collapsed into a fit of laughter.

There was so much laughter that night that by the time Adrien climbed into bed, his sides hurt from how much of the laughter had come from him. The Gorilla had joined in too, occasionally, cracking jokes with Nathalie and Adrien that had the both of them in stitches not just because of the jokes but also because neither of them had thought him capable of making one. If this was what a normal family was supposed to be like, then Adrien hoped that, when he woke up, he could live this day all over again until Marinette arrived and his life would finally be worth living.

~~~~~~~~

Woken by a warm body crashing on top of him, Adrien blinked the bright light streaming through the windows out of his sleep gunked eyes and arched his back up off the bed, sending the girl sprawled across his back into a fit of giggles that rung like a symphony in his ears.

“Good morning,” Yawning, Adrien rolled over and rested his hands on Marinette’s shoulder blades. “When did you get here?”

“Twenty minutes ago,” Snuggling into her sleep warmed boyfriend, Mari rubbed the crown of her head against his chin in a cat-like gesture that would’ve made Plagg proud. “Nathalie said I could come wake you up while Maman and Papa got set up in the kitchen. Which is huge, by the way, have you seen how massive the kitchen is here?”

“Yeah, it’s gigantic, isn’t it?” A smile played on Adrien’s lips as he pressed a gentle but firm kiss to Mari’s head and squeezed her against him. He couldn’t stop his mind from wandering in this moment as Marinette prattled on about the kitchens and the grounds and all the things she’d seen in the short space of time she’d been at the estate; there were flashes of lazy mornings with Marinette snuggled into his side, of her in the kitchen keeping an eye on him as he cooked, of the wind ruffling her hair as they looked out over Paris as Ladybug and Chat Noir, of a small girl with Mari’s heart shaped face framed by riotous golden curls riding the pinkest bike he’d ever seen in his life as Marinette’s laugh filtered in from somewhere beyond his vision. The smile appeared, fully fledged, on Adrien’s mouth as his heart raced at the thought of them having a future together and of that little girl. Their little girl.

“You should get out of bed now,” Hands on either side of Adrien’s head, Mari supported herself on stretched out arms and looked down at her still sleepy boyfriend with sparkling blue eyes. He had such an overwhelming urge to kiss her in that moment. “As much as I’d love to stay up here all day, Maman and Papa want you to help us get started on the food for your party tomorrow.”

“Your Mum and Dad actually want me to help with the cooking?” Adrien was perplexed. “Don’t they remember what happened last time?”

A light giggle left Marinette’s lips as she leant down and pressed a kiss to Adrien’s forehead. “Papa says that you’re not going to get better if you don’t practice and I’m going to be in the kitchen with them today so it’s a good excuse for you and I to hang out today,” Sitting up, Adrien nuzzled is nose into Mari’s shoulder as the two of them remembered the disastrous brownies Adrien had produced last time he’d attempted to cook with the Dupain-Cheng’s. Marinette had tried to eat them to make him feel better but they’d ended up making her sick for three days and it’d done the exact opposite of making him feel better, it’d made him feel worse because she’d gotten sick from them. “We won’t be doing anything too hard, or you won’t be anyway, maybe just a bit of decorating,” Voice lowering to a whisper, Mari looked up into Adrien’s eyes with an angelic smile. “Maman and Papa know that you’re not a big fan of huge parties so they wanted to throw you a little surprise party in the kitchen with just us, but you need to act surprised when we get down there because I wasn’t supposed to tell you.”

“Mari, your parents are absolute angels, I hope they know that,” Grinning broadly, Adrien pushed a lock of Mari’s hair behind her ear before she climbed off him so he could get out of bed. “I’m going to have a shower, I’ll be five minutes max.”

Nodding, Marinette smiled at him before he crossed the room and disappeared into the ensuite. 

Once he was in the shower, hot water streaming down his body, Adrien rubbed the heels of his palms into his eyes with a giddy grin. She was finally here, it’d been two whole days without her and it had somehow felt like an eternity but now she was here and Adrien felt that his little family unit was almost fully complete. Almost complete because Mari had said something to him before he’d left for Alsace about him and Nino being like brothers, and it had gotten stuck in his head in a way he hadn’t been able to shake free. If Nino was his brother then Chloe was his sister and that made their girlfriends family too, which meant that his family wouldn’t be whole until everyone was here, even if it was for a big party that he didn’t even want to have in the first place. Towelling off his golden hair, Adrien slipped into a pair of dark jeans he’d laid out in the bathroom the night before and a plain, heather grey t-shirt that somehow made his green eyes look even brighter than they already did.

Emerging from the bathroom and depositing his pyjamas in the hamper on the other side of the door, Adrien saw Mari sitting on his bed with a small, brightly coloured box in her hands as she played with the silky ribbon wrapped around it. Crossing over to the bed so he could sit down beside her, Adrien saw a shy blush creep up Marinette’s pale cheeks.

“What’s this?” Looking at the box, then up into Mari’s eyes, Adrien cocked his head slightly and allowed a cheeky half smile to curve onto his lips. Holding the box out to him with a slightly shaking hand, Marinette’s lips formed words that he couldn’t hear. “I can’t hear you.”

“I wanted to be the first person to give you your present, I know your birthday isn’t until tomorrow but I couldn’t wait,” Taking the box from her hands, Adrien leant forward and kissed Marinette’s cheek, then her nose, then her lips. “Open it.”

Tugging the ribbon free from it’s bow, Adrien carefully opened the box and moved aside the blue tissue paper to find a small pendant nestled within.

“I know that it’s not a big thing for guys to wear necklaces but that’s dumb and I think you’d look so good wearing this one. It’s a metatite stone, they’re meant to be for luck, and I made the pendant myself,” Lifting the pendant free, a glittering chain unraveled from beneath the layers of paper. A coil of golden wire passed through a tiny hole drilled into the stone and wrapped around the curved top in a delicate nest that held the loop that the chain was passed through. “It’ll bring you luck and I really like giving handmade gifts but I didn’t want to give you another scarf-.”

“Another scarf?” Adrien was confused. Marinette hadn’t given him a scarf before, she’d made him presents in the past for his birthday and for Christmas too but he couldn’t recall her ever having given him a scarf.

The colour on her cheeks deepening as she tried to hide her face, Marinette toyed with the edge of her skirt.

“Mari,” Hooking his finger under her chin, Adrien lifted Mari’s face so he could look into her eyes. “Come on, tell me.”

“T-the scarf your father gave you a couple of years ago...was actually from me...but I saw how happy you were at the thought of it being from your dad and I didn’t want to ruin it for you by saying that it was actually from me,” 

“Oh, Marinette, you’re too sweet for your own good,” Pulling his girlfriend into his arms, Adrien smothered her in kisses and squeezed her against him until she was laughing so hard tears sprang to her eyes from how his fingers were tickling her sides. “I love it.”

“I’m glad, now come on, let’s head down to the kitchen for your party,” Grabbing her boyfriend’s hand, Mari tugged him off the bed and toward the door. “Now you’re gonna have to lead me there because I’ve already forgotten where I’m going.”


	19. Chapter 19

Hand in hand, Adrien and Marinette pushed the kitchen doors open.

“Surprise!” Sabine was standing in the middle of the room holding a small chocolate cake with number candles spelling out ‘18’ and Tom was beside her with a noise maker between his lips and a party popper in his hands. “Happy early birthday, Adrien!”

Sabine carefully placed the cake on one of the polished steel benches beside her as Tom pulled the string on the party popper and sent a small stream of confetti flying over the two teens with a resounding pop. 

“Happy birthday, son,” Gently squeezing Adrien’s shoulder, Tom took the noise maker out of his mouth with a broad, sincere smile. “Mari said that chocolate cake was your favourite so Sabine and I whipped one up for you, Marinette did the decorating.”

“Thank you guys so much,” Allowing Marinette to pull him over to the cake, Adrien’s smile was so broad that his cheeks hurt.

“You’re not forgetting us, are you?” Whipping his head around so quickly his neck cracked, Adrien turned to face Nino, Alya, Chloe, and Kagami as they four of them descended the stairs down into the kitchen. Wrapping Adrien into a hug, Nino squeezed his best friend and lifted him off the ground. “You’re practically geriatric now, man!”

“Ah, thanks, Nino,” Squeezing his best mate back, Adrien reciprocated the force of Nino’s hug despite his feet not being on the ground. “Can you put me down now?”

“Sorry,” Releasing Adrien and putting him down, Nino clapped him on the back gently before ruffling the blonde boy’s hair. “Happy birthday, bro.”

“How did-,” Before he could finish his question Kagami answered for him.

“Were you aware that Chloe could drive because I was not prior to today,” Playing with the end of her ponytail, Chloe looked sheepish as all eyes turned to her as Kagami finished her comment. “Honestly, I’m surprised we’re not dead, she drives like a maniac.”

“‘Gami, you were wearing two out of the three seatbelts in the back,” Chloe sounded completely exasperated, rolling her eyes as Alya’s rich laugh echoed around the kitchen.

“Can we let Adrien look at his cake, guys?” Putting on a joking pout, Mari’s voice cut through the conversation seamlessly. 

“I’m allowed to take photos of the cake before he cuts it, right?” Pulling her phone out of her pocket, the small ladybug charm on the edge of her phone case swinging slightly as she did, and gestured toward the cake with it, Sabine lighting the candles. 

“Yes please,” Grinning, Marinette pushed Adrien toward the cake slightly as their friends moved to gather around the now glowing cake. The cake was beautifully decorated with pale green frosting in swirls and whorls that were stunning and intricate. Launching into singing happy birthday, Tom switched the lights off so the lit candles illuminated Adrien’s face. Phone out, Alya was recording the singing while she joined in at a lower pitch, so as not to ruin the recording. 

Once Adrien had blown the candles out, Tom switched the lights back on as Sabine began cutting the cake and distributing pieces out to the group of teens on small porcelain plates. This might just be the best birthday Adrien had ever had.

~~~~~~~

With the Dupain-Cheng’s settled in the kitchen; Marinette, Alya, Chloe, and Kagami set up in the guest house across the lawn from the main estate; and Nino in the room next door to Adrien, preparations were more than underway for Adrien’s 18th birthday celebration the next day. Gabriel had arrived at some point in the middle of the afternoon but Adrien still had yet to see him, not that he was missing his father that much when he was surrounded by people who actually cared about him. Warm and comfortable in his bed, Adrien tucked away the memories he’d made today beside the happy ones he’d made in the past few weeks before drifting peacefully off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~

Waking up at the crack of dawn the next day to find Nino snoring in the bed beside him, Adrien stretched out his arms and felt his shoulders, wrists and elbows all pop in succession. Unsure of how and when Nino had found his way into the bed, the blonde boy flicked his best friend in the face repeatedly until, with a loud yawn, Nino came to consciousness.

“Bro, what the fuck?” Rolling over to face Adrien with bleary eyes, Nino frowned at him. 

“How did you get here?” 

“Door,”

“Okay, cool, why are you here?”

“‘S cold in my room and weirdly massive. The girls all get to share the guest house and they’re even sharing a room, got lonely, ya know?” 

“So now you’re in my room?”

“Yeah, I’m going back to sleep now,” Nino immediately dropped back into unconsciousness, his snoring beginning all over again.

“You are the weirdest fucking person, Nino Lahiffe, but I’m happy you’re in my life,”

Nino made some form of unintelligible groaning noise before rolling over and almost off the bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~  
Sitting in the main common room of the guest house, the group tried to flesh out a plan for tonight for how they’d go about getting Nooroo away from Gabriel. Luka had arrived not too long ago, Juleka and Rose having come with him but somewhere off exploring the grounds together before more and more people started to arrive for the big celebration tonight. The Kwamis were out in the open, Plagg munching on some camembert while all the other Kwamis stayed as far away from him and his stinky cheese as possible. 

“We could use Trixx’s illusion?” Elbows braced on her knees, Kagami tilted her head slightly and looked toward Alya, the other girl currently writing stuff down in a notebook that was balancing on her thigh rather precariously. “Make it look like Ladybug and Chat Noir have arrived, Mr Agreste will try to go after them but we instead follow him to wherever he’s keeping Nooroo, subdue Mr Agreste and take the miraculous?”

“It could work, but there’s always the worry of the illusion dropping before we’re ready,” Leaning back against the chair Marinette was curled in behind him, Adrien furrowed his brow and rubbed his palm across the side of his face. “But we haven’t really come up with anything else have we?”  
“If all else fails, we’ve got my second chance,” Luka picked at the chipping black polish on his nails with a slight frown. “Rewind, try again.”

Face palming, Chloe let out a laugh. “I can’t believe we forgot about Luka’s rewind, guys, it’s seriously the most useful power out of all of us, excluding Alya’s illusion that is. The illusion is super helpful,” 

“I guess that’s the plan then, Trixxie and I will make it look like Ladybug and Chat Noir have arrived, and when Gabriel runs off, Mari, Adrien and Nino will follow and get Nooroo. Luka and Chloe will stay in the main area with the guests, Luka primed to rewind if we need to and Chloe with her stinger. Kagami, I’m super sorry about this but you’re going to need to be our support. Don’t transform unless it’s super necessary, I don’t think things are going to get really bad but if they do, we’re going to need you to get all the guests out and to safety before you come back and fight with us,” Closing her notebook with a snap, Alya dropped it to her side and sighed, looking at Kagami with an apologetic frown. “Once we’ve got Nooroo, Mari brought the miraculous box with her, we’ll put him in the box and Luka’ll drive it back into Paris and put it in the agreed upon safe spot.”

“Sounds good,” Chloe had gotten up off the floor at some point while Alya was talking and moved over to one of the covered windows, pushing the gauzy white curtains aside slightly so she could look outside for a moment. “We should wrap up ‘cause there’s stuff goin’ on outside and we don’t want Nathalie coming in here to find us talking superhero stuff. She still doesn’t know, does she, Adrien?”

“Nah, she doesn’t but Chlo is right, we should wrap up because I’m gonna get called into the house soon for god knows what and we all need to start getting ready for tonight,”

“Bro, what’re you talking about? Why do we need to get ready so early?” Frowning, Nino looked at Adrien confused. 

“It’s mainly the girls that’ll need time to get ready but it’ll also take time to do Luka’s hair,” Luka glared at Adrien after he’d made the comment. “But we should get going because I know that Mari has some finishing touches to make to Chloe’s dress and that Chloe is going to need as much space as humanly possible to do everyone’s makeup because, god knows, she owns more makeup than it should be possible to own.”

“Thanks, Adrien,” Chucking a nearby pillow at Adrien, Chloe’s mouth formed a grin as she saw someone approaching the guest house. “Sabby is here, so are Juleka, Rose and Mylene, so you boys might want to skedaddle before this place turns into the salon of your nightmares.”

“Alright, we’re going,” Getting up off the floor, Nino kissed Alya’s temple before offering his hand to Luka to help the dark haired boy up. “Don’t kill each other, girls.”

“We won’t,” Kagami’s smile was something akin to sinister as her eyes met Nino’s and held for much longer than he would’ve liked them to. “Now get out before we kill you.”

~~~~~~~~~~  
“Alright, Chloe, come on out,” Marinette slipped the pincushion off her wrist carefully, so as not to stab herself with any of the pins stuck in it or knock any loose and scattering to the carpeted ground. “You look amazing, as usual, but you need to show everyone!”

Alya, Sabrina, Juleka, Rose, Mylene, and Kagami were sitting around the room in various states of dress, Alya attempting to line Rose’s eyes without her hand shaking as the small blonde girl hummed along to some song playing in her head. All of them were waiting to see how Chloe looked in the dress Mari had made for her before the most makeup adept of all of them (Chloe) could help them finalise their looks. 

“Alright, I’m coming,” Stepping out of the room hesitantly, Chloe lifted the skirt of her dress slightly (it was longer than it looked but she also wasn’t wearing her heels yet so she wasn’t too worried) and emerged fully into the late afternoon sunlight filtering through the abundant windows of the guest house. Resplendent in the most beautiful shade of yellow silk the girls had ever seen, Chloe’s hair and skin glowed like pure gold as the silver jewellery ornamenting her sparkled. Hugging her hips snugly and falling to the floor in a small pool of shimmering fabric, a long slit cut up to just above her knee and the bodice cut into a long triangle that showcased her delicate collarbone and the sides of her carefully taped breasts, gossamer sleeves hung off her shoulders in fragile ribbons that split (a bit like her skirt) at her elbows and drifted down to her thighs. A chain belt was wrapped around her slim waist, small lengths of it hanging down before connecting back up to the belt itself. “So, how do I look?”

“Y-you look…” Sabrina was at a loss for words as she looked at her girlfriend with the most star-struck eyes Marinette had ever seen. “Incredible.”

“Damn, Mari, you did a good job!” Moving over to Marinette’s side, Alya slung her arm over her best friend’s shoulder and grinned. “You look like a goddess, Chlo.”

“Alya, what did you do to Rose’s face!” Jaw dropping, Chloe flew across the room to Rose’s side and immediately began wiping the black smudging around her eyes away with a cotton pad. “You’re meant to line her eyes, not colour them in!”


	20. Chapter 20

Fiddling anxiously with his cufflinks, Adrien’s fingers itched to reach for one of the wine flutes being toted around the room on black trays by plainly dressed waiters and waitresses. People had started filing in ages ago and the stream had remained steady for about an hour now, people coming to the door to have their name announced like a damn debutante ball before they descended the stairs into the white marble room and swept over to Adrien to give him their congratulations on reaching adulthood. Though the ballroom was ridiculously large, he felt so small and so trapped, a clock ticking away in the back of his head for how long he would last before the busyness of this room overwhelmed him and sent him fleeing to the garden for some peace and quiet. Nino had disappeared not too long ago, likely to meet Alya so they could be announced together but something told him that the aspiring DJ was probably crying in some empty corridor somewhere from how slow and boring the music playing was and, frankly, Adrien felt that the string quartet wasn’t exactly his speed at the moment either.

Sweeping his eyes across the room as he shook yet another hand, Adrien searched for the bright red hat of his best friend (Nino had outright refused to take the hat off, even when Gabriel had requested that he did, saying that anyone who tried to remove his hat would not be found the next morning) or the two-toned hair of Kagami’s musician beau with no avail. The smile on his lips was fake but he was so glad that none of the people who he’d greeted so far had known him well enough to see that and he internally begged for someone, anyone, to come and save him from this hell of his father’s making.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” The herald or whatever the guy was called that was standing atop the stairs calling out guest’s names held the card with Marinette’s name on it out in front of him with a confused look as he announced her, Adrien’s eyes immediately snapping to the dark haired young woman standing at the top of the stairs. His jaw dropped so low he swore that he heard the silver threaded marble beneath his feet crack slightly from the impact. He couldn’t think of the words to describe how she looked as she took a tentative step forward and began descending the stairs. Her dark hair was loose around her shoulders with a small section of it tied into a small ponytail that melted into the inkyness swishing below, her fringe was fluffier and two small strands of hair framed the sides of her face as she awkwardly chewed a plum painted lip. The train of her dress spread out behind her and cascaded down the stairs in a waterfall of the deepest purple he’d ever seen; the sleeves were long and ended right at her wrists with the top of the dress sitting low across her shoulders so as to expose them and her collarbone tastefully; a sash was tied around her waist and, though Adrien could not see it, sat in a neat bow against her lower back. She wore no necklace, her loose hair ornamentation enough for her slender, slowly reddening neck and shoulders.

Finally reaching the bottom of the stairs, at the same time, Adrien and Marinette smiled at each other as he held his hand out for her to take so he could lead her further into the ballroom. There were whispers around them as Adrien tucked Mari’s hand into the crook of his elbow and wove through the room toward the long catering tables set up toward the back. Eyes followed the couple as they moved past, Marinette holding herself with a grace that made Adrien’s heart race. Let them stare, he thought, let them stare and see that I’m here with the most beautiful person in this entire place. Coming to a stop at the back of the room, Mari looked up at her boyfriend shyly.

“I asked him not to announce me as your girlfriend, I didn’t want to embarrass you,” Playing with a silky strand of hair that had slid over her shoulder, Marinette spoke in a low voice.

“You could never embarrass me, Mari,” Brushing his hand against her waist, Adrien released Mari’s hand and decided to rest his hand on her hip, pulling her into his side. “And I think they’re pretty much aware that we’re together anyway.”

The two began to sway slightly to the soft, classical music coming from the string quartet in the corner across the room from them.

“A-adrien,” Mari began speaking, feeling her words get caught in her throat as he moved slightly to look at her, worried. 

“Are you alright?” 

“Y-yeah, I-i’m okay,”

“You’re not, Mari, I know that look. What’s wrong?” Rubbing his thumb gently against her waist, Adrien tried to press her without being too harsh.

“I...I don’t know if I can do it,”

“Do what?”

“Take the miraculous away from your father,”

“Why?”

“Because…,” Tears sprang to Marinette’s eyes as she bowed her head, ashamed. “Because I know that taking the miraculous away from him means him going away...him going to jail...and I don’t want to deny you the father you deserve.”

“Oh Mari. You’re too sweet for your own good,”

“I know,”

“If he was going to be the father I deserved then he would’ve tried ages ago, which he hasn’t. He’s constantly put himself first and this,” Adrien waved his hand to encompass the whole room and all those within. “Just shows that he never took the time to actually get to know me. God, if it weren’t for Nathalie, he’d probably have forgotten how old I was. Gabriel Agreste isn’t going to be the father I deserve and I know that because the father I deserve gave me you.”

~~~~~~~~~  
At exactly nine pm, Alya slipped into the hedged garden just beyond the ballroom and transformed into Rena Rouge, albeit a more formal version of what she normally wore but still distinctive as herself, as she waited for Marinette and Adrien’s signal to conjure Ladybug and Chat Noir’s arrival. The couple had just left the dancefloor and made their way to a table covered in canapes, standing side by side as they discussed something just below the reach of Alya’s fox enhanced hearing, crouching behind the hedge with the glass Adrien and Marinette stood behind in view, Alya watched as Mari turned slightly and swept the long sheet of inky hair hanging around her shoulder blades over her left shoulder. To ensure that the signal was more than just Mari fiddling with her hair like she usually did when it was out, the group had agreed to get Adrien to act as a secondary signaller; his instructions being to somehow snag his cufflinks on Mari’s small ponytail and pull it out so Mari would have to leave the ballroom to fix it, giving Alya the perfect chance to bring in the illusory Ladybug and Chat Noir before Marinette returned so she and Adrien could follow Gabriel’s retreat.

Catching Mari’s hair on his cufflink as planned, Adrien’s eyes met Alya’s briefly as Marinette’s hair came fully loose and she released a yelp of real, sincere pain at the tug. Watching Mari leave for the bathroom, Adrien following after her before slowing down and standing beside Nino, who was talking animatedly with Luka as Kagami nursed a flute of champagne, listening intently to the conversation before Juleka came out of nowhere and grabbed her brother’s arm, dragging him to the dance floor to waltz with her. The team hadn’t exactly factored in their non-superhero friends when they’d made the plan earlier that day and, as Alya raised her flute to her lips and wove her illusion, she hoped against hope that their friends, no matter how dearly she loved them, didn’t fuck this up.

~~~~~~~

Pacing back and forth, Nathalie was wringing her hands again. The skin on her hands was beginning to crack from how much she’d been wringing her hands in the past few days, she’d taken to wearing gloves when they’d arrived at Alsace, trying to hide the extent of her worry from Adrien. Dressed in a floor length cocktail dress of deep crimson, a gauzy cape hanging off her shoulders and falling to the floor behind her dress in a cascading waterfall of shimmering fabric, Nathalie played with the silken fingertips of her gloves as she looked out over the ballroom crowded with people. She could easily pick out Adrien’s golden head in the midst of all the people, his blue and black haired friend being dragged away by a girl with vibrant purple hair as the boy in the red hat, Nino she tried to recall his name as, laughed and laughed and laughed. Moving to the railing and placing her hands against it, trying not to squeeze the shining marble in a display of her anxiety, Nathalie’s eyes scanned across the room for Marinette, confused as to why she wasn’t at Adrien’s side. 

There was a sudden clamouring and rise in volume from the floor below, heads turning to face the staircase as the crowd thickened into a tsunami of people moving slowly. Leaning over the railing slightly, Nathalie saw a dark haired girl in a gown of cold, bright red with black polka dots and a wide skirt standing beside the herald. Ladybug looked stunning, despite her face still being covered in a mask (though this one covered more of her face than the one she usually wore). The bodice was heart-shaped, showing off Ladybug’s clavicle slightly with long, black gloves reaching up to her surprisingly defined biceps and no sleeves, the waistline was tapered slightly in a V before the skirt sat out wide from her hips. A tulle overskirt designed to look like ladybug wings floated over the larger skirt on a phantom wind, that had Nathalie wide eyed and itching to take notes on every aspect of the dress so that she could study it and recreate it for herself. 

“Ladybug, Superhero of Paris,” The herald’s voice rang across the room as every single voice dropped, Nathalie’s heart dropping too and cracking into the floor beneath her feet like a stone. No, no, no, no, she’d tried to tell them not to come. This was what Gabriel wanted. Why would they give him what he wanted? And why would they do it on Adrien’s birthday of all days? They knew that today was for him and they’d still come, intent on destroying Hawkmoth and Adrien Agreste with him. A young man with a head of golden hair dressed in a pristine black suit with a black button up beneath it and a golden bow tie appeared behind Ladybug and placed a hand on her lower back, leaning into the herald who announced him a moment later. “Chat Noir, the Superpowered Pun Master of Paris and King of Kitty Cats.”

Nathalie face palmed. Of course Chat Noir would make a spectacle of himself, asking to be announced in such a way. The two superheroes descended the stairs, Ladybug’s hand tucked into the crook of Chat Noir’s elbow as she looked around the ballroom serenely. Eyes snapping to the back of the room, Nathalie caught sight of Gabriel just in time for him to slip into a servant’s corridor and out of sight, her breath caught in her throat painfully. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.


	21. Chapter 21

Marinette watched Gabriel leave, slipping into a hidden corridor toward the back left of the ballroom and disappearing. Trying not to watch her illusory self walk gracefully through the ballroom on Chat’s arm, Alya as Rena following behind with her flute slung over her back and figures looking like Viperion, Queen Bee, Carapace and Ryuko not too far behind her. Mari knew that the Alya walking within their friends superhero forms was real and that she’d chosen to remain within the group of illusions so as to maintain the guise of them being real and to make sure the illusion didn’t drop. Trixx’s illusion magic tended to work best if Alya was as close to it as possible, so that’s the route the dark red haired girl had decided to follow for this particular mission. 

Following into the corridor behind Gabriel, Mari paused for a moment until she felt a warm hand wrap loosely around her trembling fingers. Turning to face Adrien and Nino, Marinette pressed her finger to her lips and led the two boys down the corridor until they reached a bend.

“Nino, you should call out Wayzz and transform, depending on how this goes, we’re really going to need you,” Lightly gripping the sleeve of Nino’s suit jacket, Mari pushed herself up onto her toes as far as her wedged heels would allow and whispered into Nino’s ear. “Adrien and I should be able to distract him for a bit, Gabriel hasn’t met me as Adrien’s girlfriend yet,” A slight blush began to creep up Adrien’s cheeks at Mari’s words. “And it should throw him off while you sneak in and swap his miraculous box with this,” Dipping her hand into the pocket of her dress (she’d added the pockets herself, not just for this particular purpose but because Marinette was a firm believer in all women’s clothing having the deepest pockets possible), Mari pulled out an eerily similar box to the ones she, Adrien, and their friends stowed their miraculouses in when needed, though this one had engravings of moths and butterflies on it, showing it as the box for Nooroo’s dormant miraculous. “It’s got a fake butterfly brooch in it so he won’t notice the difference until the last moment, and that shouldn’t be until Luka is far enough away with the miraculous case.”

“How do I make sure not to mix them up?” Scratching his chin as he took the box from Marinette’s open palm and slipping it into the inner pocket of his suit jacket, Nino’s lips curled slightly in worry. 

Taking the box out of Nino’s pocket, Marinette turned it slightly and showed him the hinge of the box. “Here,” She pointed at the ever so slightly visible golden hinge. “The proper boxes are made so the hinge is completely invisible and can’t be seen until the box is open, you can see the hinge on this one though. It’s not exactly what I wanted but I didn’t fix it purely because I knew you’d ask that question,” Handing the box back to Nino, the red capped boy slid it back into his pocket and patted the outside with a grin.

“I used to think that you overthought things way too much, Mari, but, damn, I’m so grateful for it now,” Pulling Mari to him slightly, Adrien’s hand still wrapped around hers, Nino pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “You two go on ahead, I’ll transform and be right behind you.”

“Do you remember the words to make yourself invisible?” Placing a firm hand on his best friend’s shoulder, Adrien looked Nino in the eye sternly, trying to make sure that Nino wasn’t going to burst into wherever they were going completely visible and ruin this whole, precariously put together plan.

“Yep, now you two need to go or we’re going to run out of time,” Shrugging Adrien’s hand off his shoulder, Nino waved away Adrien’s comment and pushed the couple slightly toward the direction Gabriel had disappeared down. “Go, run like hell.”

~~~~~~~~~~~  
Remaining on the balcony, Nathalie watched the posse of superheroes fan out into the crowd of people, Rena Rouge sticking to Ladybug and Chat Noir’s sides as Viperion and Ryuko made their way to the back of the room and Queen Bee amassed a crowd of adoring fans, she was quite the social butterfly. Nathalie had lost track of the green one, Carapace or whatever his name was, in the throng of people below, the young man not wearing his usual vibrant green and his head not covered by the hood of his costume, making him blend into the crowd easily. Chewing on her lip, she searched for Adrien’s golden head, not sure whether she should be hoping that he was as close as possible to the superheroes or extremely far away from them; her search came up fruitless. Confused, Nathalie searched the crowd again with a more scrutinising gaze, leaning over the balcony again slightly. 

The shining haloed head of her son was nowhere to be found, causing Nathalie’s heart to thunder and beat with intense, worried irregularity. Where was he? He was here when Ladybug and Chat Noir and the rest of them arrived, where could he be now? Her head had begun to swim with a million shades of worry, the marble bannister beneath her hand beginning to sway slightly like undulating water as the grey and silver threading through it began to curl and coil and slither over each other like snakes. Nathalie suddenly felt weightless, like she was falling, as she tipped over the bannister and plummeted to the level below, unaware of the fact that she was falling at all. She couldn’t hear the distant cries as she fell, her ears deaf and her mind completely blank save for the aching, echoing worry for her boy, her son. 

~~~~~~~

Squeezing Marinette’s hand lightly, Adrien knocked on the large oaken door he’d watched his father disappear behind a moment ago. The rapping from the young man’s knuckles reverberated through the empty corridor he and Marinette were standing in as well as the study beyond the doors. There was the faint sound of muttered swearing before the clicking of shoes against polished flooring approached the doors, swinging open to reveal a very pissed off and mildly disheveled Gabriel Agreste.

The usually perfect coiff Adrien had never seen his father without was rumpled, as though someone had been running their fingers through it, and the top two buttons of his stark white button down were undone, revealing the equally as stark undershirt beneath. 

“Adrien,” Gabriel addressed his son curtly as he stepped aside slightly and allowed the two into the room, Marinette noticing Adrien’s verging on being than his father as they passed him. “I do not believe I’ve had the pleasure of meeting you yet,” Holding his hand out to Marinette, Gabriel assessed with extreme scrutiny her behind his wife framed glasses. Reaching out to shake the elder Agreste man’s hand, Gabriel grabbed her hand in a way she’d only ever experienced when it was Adrien dressed as Chat Noir doing it. Pressing a light kiss to Marinette’s knuckles with the slightest bow, Gabriel’s face remained emotionless despite his state. Mari guessed that he’d disappeared back here with someone else to throw off the scent of his being Hawkmoth should anyone, such as Adrien and herself, decide to follow him. “I am Gabriel Agreste.”

“I..I know,” Trying not to stumble over her words, Marinette felt her cheeks heat in the presence of not just her boyfriend’s father but the designer she’d aspired to be like for most of her life and the most dangerous, notorious supervillain in France. “I’m Marinette...Marinette Dupain-Cheng. B-but, my friends c-call me M-Mari, Mr Agreste. It’s a p-p...pleasure to meet you.”

“Chin up, child,” Almost disdainfully, Gabriel released Marinette’s hand and stood completely straight, his body unnaturally still, as his lips curled slightly at the young woman’s posture and the inelegant bow of her head. “Standing like that adds twenty years to your appearance and is unflattering and ugly.”

Wide eyed, Mari glanced at Adrien with quivering lips as she straightened her own back and tipped her chin up slightly. Hands held loosely behind his back, Gabriel walked further into the room, motioning for the two to follow him with a curt, impersonal nod. 

“Sit,” Sliding into the large leather chair behind the biggest, shiniest desk Mari had ever seen in her entire life, Gabriel Agreste ran a hand through his hair and smoothed down a few stray pieces of his perfectly glossy platinum blonde hair. “How did you meet my son?”

Marinette and Adrien had been careful about not closing the door behind them, leaving it slightly ajar so that the invisible Nino could pass through as soon as needed. Having watched his best friends disappear into the study, a slight glance over a shoulder from Adrien before they entered telling Nino that things were currently going exactly as planned, on this end at least anyway. Sucking his stomach in as much as he could, Nino slipped through the open door with painfully held breath. Bumping the door slightly, he squeezed his eyes closed as tightly as possible and fought against his own racing heart to stay as calm as he could. The door made no sound from Nino’s small collision, not even whispering as it brushed over the polished floor and away from him. Releasing his breath slowly, shakily, and impossibly quietly, Nino entered the room fully and pressed his back against the flat expanse of wall adjacent to it, seeing his two best friends across the room from him as Marinette was interrogated by Gabriel Agreste. Nino had been in her position once, Gabriel had called him to the mansion in Paris and grilled him within an inch of his life on every single aspect of Nino’s life, personality, interests and whatever other trivial things the Agreste patriarch had felt the compulsion to know. He felt sorry for Mari but was so thankful that it wasn’t him.

Inching further into the room, avoiding anything that could give him away as he slowly moved away from the door and past the half wall that had initially separated his entry from the conversation being had at the desk beyond, Nino slotted himself into a spot between a large metallic filing cabinet and a wall with a curtain covered window, waiting. Gabriel’s interrogation of Marinette continued, Nino beginning to feel as though this really wasn’t his place to be as the questions became more and more personal and Mari’s answers became more and more shaky, embarrassed. Ears suddenly pricking up at footfalls approaching the study, Nino’s breath caught in his throat again as Adrien’s bodyguard threw the door of the study open fully, rounding the half wall and commanding the trio’s attention with silent intensity.

“Yes, Mr Gorille?” Gabriel’s voice was bored, a tone Nino was more than used to seeing as Adrien’s father tended to have three emotions: bored, angry, and disdainful. Quickly and almost unsuccessfully stifling a laugh at the bodyguard’s surname, the invisible boy’s heart began to thunder again, so loud in his own ears that he was worried everyone else in the room would hear it and he would be done for. “What do you want?”

“Sir, Ms Sancouer fell over one of the balconies,” The Gorilla’s voice was gruff, almost as emotionless as Gabriel’s but there was the unmistakable tenor of worry in his tone as he spoke of Adrien’s new adoptive mother and his good friend. Gabriel immediately shot to his feet.

“Is she alright?” Gabriel didn’t sound or look particularly worried, though something about his posture hinted at him actively trying to experience a human emotion (and failing, much to Nino’s delight).

“One of the superheroes you invited, Queen Bee, caught her just as she tipped over. Ms Sancouer is alright though she did knock her head against the bannister as she fell and is bleeding quite immensely from the temple where her skin has split. One of the waiters is administering first aid as we speak but Ms Sancouer is asking for Master Adrien,” Nodding his head toward Adrien as he finished, Nino saw the change in the bodyguard’s posture a moment after he noticed the abject fear swimming in his best friend’s wide eyes. Nino had almost forgotten that Nathalie had signed the adoption papers for Adrien and that the other young man was still adjusting to having a parent who actually gave a shit about him, of course Adrien would be terrified.

“We will all go. Come,” Rounding the desk, Gabriel pulled Adrien and Marinette with him, like they were planets caught in his orbit. The four of them left the room, leaving Nino pressed against the wall between the filing cabinet and the window.

~~~~~~~~

Dressed as Queen Bee, Chloe cradled Nathalie in her arms gently before laying the woman down on an overstuffed lounge in a parlour not too far from the ballroom. A steady stream of crimson blood trickled from the woman’s temple and onto the pale golden skin of Chloe’s arm as she carefully positioned Nathalie’s head, making sure she was laid comfortably on the couch. Not wanting Alya to tire too quickly as she maintained the illusions, Chloe Bourgeois had slipped away to ‘powder her nose’ and returned dressed as Queen Bee, Pollen having morphed her usual suit into an equally beautiful dress as the one Mari had made for her. She’d just emerged from her hidey hole after transforming when she’d seen Nathalie suddenly sway then topple over the bannister of the balcony across the wide ballroom from her, using her miraculous enhanced speed, Chloe had flown across the room and caught the falling woman before she’d even come close to the shining floor. 

The crowd of people had begun to advance on Chloe as she held Nathalie in her arms, checking that she was still breathing and that there was no damage to her beyond the bleeding wound at her temple. For once in her life, Chloe hadn’t enjoyed the crowd’s attention, wanting desperately to get Nathalie somewhere safe so she could clean up the blood painting the side of the older woman’s face and bring someone to her who had the training and knowledge to be able to do something to help her. Adrien’s bodyguard, the Gorilla, had swept the crowd away so that Chloe could take Nathalie somewhere less crowded, the large man exhibiting a level of emotion Chloe hadn’t been sure he was capable of.

Luka had appeared soon after Chloe had set Nathalie down, the Gorilla having disappeared to find Adrien and Gabriel once the former’s name had been heard faintly leaving her lips, with Kagami in tow, a waiter not far behind the Japanese girl. Assuring her friends that the waiter knew first aid, Chloe moved aside and allowed the dark skinned woman to tend to Nathalie, mopping the blood away from her face and checking what vitals she could without complex instruments. 

Standing silently, arms crossed over her chest as her heart hammered, Chloe tried not to pace as Kagami (still dressed in creaseless culottes and a handmade kimono jacket she’d said Marinette had made for her at the beginning of the year) stood at Luka’s side, one hand entwined with hers while the other tapped out a melody on the thigh of his tux. He’d swapped out into Viperion before Chloe had changed into Queen Bee, Kagami remaining in civilian attire as Alya had suggested. Footsteps approached them from outside the parlour, Kagami releasing Luka’s hand and gliding away from him fluidly as the waiter’s head snapped to face the door, glancing past the two as her dark eyes glazed over Luka appreciatively. Immediately crossing the room to Nathalie’s side, Adrien’s skin had bleached to a pale sheet white as he knelt down beside her and took her limp hand in his own clammy, worry-mottled ones. Marinette hung by the door, Gabriel Agreste floating just outside the threshold as the Gorilla stood guard. Hesitantly, Chloe moved over to Marinette and stood beside her awkwardly as the two girls watched Adrien sweep a lock of dark hair streaked with Nathalie’s signature red stripe away from her pale face.

“Miss Dupain-Cheng,” Unsure of how to greet Mari, Chloe’s words came out too formal and too stilted.

“Hello Queen Bee, you look lovely this evening,” Mari was definitely a better actress than Chloe, not that the blonde girl would ever admit it to her. Keeping her identity as Ladybug from so many people in her life, including Alya, had definitely made her so good at pretending that, if Chloe hadn’t known Marinette better, she might’ve thought they were actually strangers meeting for the very first time and not friends trying desperately not to give up the dangerous charade that they were playing. “I heard that you caught Ms Sancouer as she fell. That was very brave of you and I can’t thank you enough for saving her.”

“It’s alright, helping people is what I do,” Chloe’s smile was sincere but awkward, she wished that Sabrina was here to hold her hand because it’s not every day that you watch your best friend’s mother go toppling off a balcony and you’re the one who catches her, stopping her from smacking into the ground from a height that very likely would’ve killed her. “I’m lucky that I caught her in time though, if I had been a moment later she might’ve hit the ground and would be in much worse condition.”

“Regardless, I’m really thankful that you were there. Where are Ladybug and Chat Noir?” Marinette knew that Gabriel, the Gorilla, and the waiter would all be asking the same question if they could so she asked it for them. Of course, she knew where they were; Chat Noir was kneeling beside his mother with shaking hands and tear stung eyes, and Ladybug was standing back, giving her partner a moment to breathe as he grieved. 

“They’re doing crowd control with Rena Rouge, we thought it best if the two of them stayed with the public and calmed them down instead of having Viperion and I do it. The public love Ladybug and Chat Noir, they’re more likely to trust them than they are to trust us,” The lie was smooth, seamless, almost as if Chloe had been practicing it over and over in her head for the moment that exact question was asked (she had been). Glancing around the room discreetly, Marinette made sure that those who’d needed to hear the lie had and that they’d believed it, convinced that Chloe’s words had met their mark, Mari moved toward Adrien and placed a careful hand on his shoulder.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marinette, Adrien, Gabriel and the Gorilla had gone, leaving Nino alone in the study with the fake miraculous box Mari had made clutched carefully in his hand. He generally wasn’t the type to say that an accident was a stroke of luck but this time, it really had been. They’d thought through how to get Nino in and how to delay Gabriel’s realisation that the real butterfly miraculous had been spirited away from him but there hadn’t been much thought put into how Nino would go about switching the boxes and then getting the fuck out of the study. The Gorilla had closed the door behind the group when they’d left, Nino’s keen ears hadn’t missed the click of the lock as he did so but that wasn’t an issue for now, the issue for now was getting ahold of the real butterfly miraculous. 

Still invisible, Nino crossed the room carefully and rounded the desk, kneeling down so he was at eye level with the column of drawers on the left side of the desk. The lowermost drawer had a keyhole toward the top of it, when Nino tugged on it he found that it was locked (not that he expected it to be unlocked, this was Gabriel Agreste he was attempting to rob and the man was nothing if not thorough). Checking the other side of the desk, Nino found two more locked drawers. Resting back onto his feet, still crouching, he chewed his lip and moved his gaze between the two sides of the desk and the three locked drawers, he’d never actually wanted to try and think like a supervillain but right now he was going to have to because he had a feeling deep in his gut that told him that Gabriel Agreste was definitely not keeping the butterfly miraculous in one of these drawers. Remembering what Tikki and Plagg had said a few weeks ago about how Kwamis could find each other, Nino paused for a moment before relinquishing invisibility and freeing Wayzz from his activated state. The exhausted Kwami hovered in the air in front of Nino as the boy peered over the desk toward the half wall separating him from the door and strained his ears for any sound of someone approaching.

“Nino, what’s wrong?” Confused, Wayzz looked up over the lip of the desk too, a large yawn leaving his mouth. 

Pulling a small packet of jelly beans from his pants pocket, Nino handed one to Wayzz before ducking back down under the desk. “Hey, so you know how Kwamis can find each other?”

“Yes, but it’s not an exact science, Nino,” Chewing slowly on the jelly bean, Wayzz’s smooth brow furrowed slightly. “What do you need me to do?”

“Do you think you can track Nooroo? I think the butterfly miraculous is in here somewhere but I wanna be sure before I start ripping things apart,”

“We’re in Gabriel Agreste’s office, yes?” Nino nodded, heart racing. They didn’t have ages and Nino was too far away from Luka to be able to ask for a second chance at this (second chance would only give him 10 minutes at max anyway and there was always the worry that jumping back to try again wouldn’t necessarily change the outcome for the better) so right now was likely the only chance he and Wayzz had to grab the miraculous and skedaddle the fuck out of this study and back to the party. “Give me a moment.”

“We don’t have long, turtle dude, cause if we get caught, we’re done for, so please don’t take too long,” Finishing the jelly bean, Wayzz nodded before closing his eyes and floating completely still in the air in front of Nino’s face. Moving with his eyes closed, Wayzz floated up under the desk, weaving past Gabriel’s desk chair as he did so. Opening his eyes, Wayzz pointed up to the underside of the desk with a fin.

“There’s a compartment there, he’s in there. I can feel it,” 

“Turtle dude, you are the best,” Crawling under the desk with a grin, Nino slid his fingertips along the underside until he felt a long groove in the varnished wood. Pushing up gently, the board dislodged and, with a slightly angled turn, came away from the underside of the desk into Nino’s gentle hands. Wayzz floated up into the compartment the board had been hiding and disappeared into the darkness within before floating back with a box much too large for him to be moving clutched unsteadily between his small, green fins. “Honestly, man, I don’t know how to thank you enough for this. You are a lifesaver, literally.”

“You should transform back, Nino, you have the box but, as you said, there isn’t much time and I would rather us not get caught,” Slipping the box Wayzz had been holding into the inner pocket of his suit jacket, resting above his heart, Nino pushed the fake box into the cavity beneath the desk and returned the board hiding it to its original position, making sure that the smooth wood that matched the rest of the desk was facing down so as not to give away what had transpired.   
Taking Wayzz’s advice, Nino transformed back into Carapace, his costume identical to the illusory one Alya was maintaining in the ballroom, before slipping back into invisibility with the whispered words: ‘Protective shell-ter’. Double checking the security of the miraculous box, Nino carefully got up and crossed the room to the door, twisting the handle gently hoping that it locked from the inside and not the outside. To his dismay, he found the door locked and refusing to budge, his knowledge of lock picking completely non-existent and thus no help to him in this moment. He couldn’t hear anyone approaching but that didn’t stop the anxious, echoing beat of his heart as he looked around the room for something, anything, that would get him out before Gabriel came back. When Gabriel came back, it was game over. He’d go for the miraculous and find that it was fake, Luka wouldn’t have had enough time to get away before Gabriel unleashed havoc in ways Nino couldn’t even fathom and this would end with Adrien and Marinette’s miraculouses in Gabriel’s possession as well as the rest of the groups. This was a risky game to be playing but it was the only one they had.

Eyes snagging on the heavy damask curtains, Nino moved toward the window and pushed them aside. Looking out into the garden and down, there was a row of rose bushes below (just his luck, eh?) and the window sill was higher than he would’ve liked, though all he had to do was step down from it, he was on the first floor after all. The window had a latch on the inside, which Nino flipped free so he could push the windows open; cold air rushed right at his heated face as he did so and calmed his fried nerves slightly. Pushing himself up over the window sill, Nino dropped down into the garden bed below, narrowly missing the thorns on the bushes as he maneuvered himself as close to the building as he could. Seconds before he began to sneak away, Nino remembered that the window had been closed and locked with the curtains drawn over it before he’d used it as an escape route; mentally bashing himself, he stood up and tried to close the window as best as he could from the outside, the endeavour going about as well as could be expected for a window that opened inward and closed with a latch. He didn’t want to leave it open, anything that could alert Gabriel of foul play had to be eradicated completely. Gaze darting around the room as the too fast beating of his anxious heart returned, Nino again searched for something that could help him, though this search was fruitless.

From where he was standing, Nino could see the door that he’d entered through as well as Gabriel’s desk, in fact, he could see the entire sprawl of the room from this one vantage point. There was a door behind the desk, slightly to the right, that was ajar and there was a light on behind it. Confused as to how he hadn’t seen it before, Nino climbed back into the study and carefully pushed the door open further. Sitting on a plush, velvet lined chair within was a woman in a rather severe state of undress, playing on her phone with a disgruntled look on her face. Mouth curving into an ‘o’, Nino remembered how Gabriel hadn’t seemed as put together as he usually did when he’d entered the room; realisation dawned on him as he looked at this stunning woman with mocha coloured skin and waist length midnight hair chilling in a room attached to Gabriel’s study in her underwear. Gabriel had come in here to fuck before he went all ‘hawky’. Nino’s lips curled into a smile which he hid, despite his invisibility, by pressing his lips together and rolling them into his mouth; reaching to pull his phone out of his pocket, he paused, he knew that he was going to take the photo so he could show Alya but he knew his girlfriend well enough that no matter how he tried to phrase it, she would definitely not take him having a photo of a half naked woman on his phone very well (especially since he’d taken it while invisible). Sliding his phone back into his pocket and looking back at the window, Nino had an idea.

Pushing the door into the room the woman was in open further before he dashed to the window and climbed out unceremoniously, Nino waited below to see if she’d take the bait. Surely, after a moment he heard the woman release a displeased groan before he heard her light footsteps moving toward the window.

“He brings me in here and gets me half undressed then his kid turns up so he fucking abandons me and he had the audacity to leave the window open before he left? Fuck you, Gabriel Agreste,” She slammed the window closed and latched it, Nino below stifling a laugh with all his might as she closed the curtains with an angry flourish and stormed back to the room she’d been sitting in. Once she was gone, he released his held breath with a refreshing whoosh, stood up and sprinted as quickly as he could, Wayzz didn’t enhance his speed as much as Plagg, Pollen, Trixx and even Tikki enhanced the others, toward the guest house. Ducking around the back of the house, chest heaving from exertion, Nino dropped the invisibility and pulled the miraculous box out, checking it over to make sure that it was the right one. Quickly assessing the vicinity around him, he twisted the handle of the back door and slipped into the guest house kitchen.

Opening the miraculous box, Nino caught a glimpse of the butterfly brooch for a split second before there was a flash of dull purple light and Nooroo appeared.

“H-who are you?” The Kwami spoke in a small, scared voice, pressing his fins together as he looked at Nino with an expression akin to that of someone just about to cry.

“I’m Carapace, I’m a friend,” Lowering his voice and trying to sound as reassuring as possible, Nino chewed the inside of his cheek. “Mayura sent me to come find you so we could return you to your miraculous box and keep you safe from Hawkmoth.” Silently, Nino crossed his fingers in the hopes that Nooroo would understand what he was saying.

“M..Ms Nathalie sent you to get me?” Still speaking very quietly, Nooroo floated slightly closer to Nino’s face with the widest eyes he’d ever seen. “Y-you’re going to take me somewhere else? P-please t-tell me t-that you’re go-going to take me s-s-s-somewhere el,” Nooroo hiccuped. “Else.”

“Yeah, I am, but I need you to get back in your box so I can put your box with the others. Then one of my friends, who is also here to help you, is going to come and get the miraculous case and take it somewhere far away from here to keep it safe until we can come get it,”

“W-will you come and get me?” It had been so long since Nooroo had felt cared for. Gabriel had treated him like an object and even the rare moments he got to share with Duusuu didn’t fill the void Gabriel had created within him.

“Maybe, maybe not, but I do know that my friend Marinette, she’s one of my best friends and the best person you’ll ever meet, will definitely be coming to get you. She’s got Tikki with her, so you know you can trust her because Tikki wouldn’t trust just anyone,” Nino didn’t actually know if what he was saying was true but if it would get Nooroo back in his box so they could get him away from here then he didn’t care if it was a lie.

“I-if Tikki chose her then she has to be special,” Nooroo nodded, the gesture making Nino’s shoulders feel lighter for some reason. “I’ll see y-you a-another time. Thank you for saving me.”

“Hey, don’t mention it,” Nino grinned as he held the box open, Nooroo floating back into it before it closed with a gentle snap. Alya had told Nino that he could tell which room was hers and Marinette’s by what was hanging on the doorknob, glancing around the room he saw only one door with something hanging from the knob so he moved toward it, whatever was dangling from it unrecognisable in the dimness within the guest house. Reaching the door, Nino saw that Alya had carefully balanced a pair of his headphones on the knob, they were his favourite pair and he’d been looking for them for days! Grinning and rolling his eyes, Nino pushed the door open and saw a weird, slightly curved lump under the sheets of one of the beds. Suspecting that it was the box, Nino pulled the sheets back and stowed Nooroo’s little, craved black and red box within the much larger black and red one before smoothing the sheets back out, making the box a little bit less conspicuous for when the girls came back. 

Releasing Wayzz and feeding him again, Nino exited the guest house through the back door and, by way of the shadows and some very carefully timed moving, made his way to the hedged garden where he sat down on a wrought iron bench and pulled out his phone, texting Alya to tell her that it was done.

~~~~~~~~~~

Shortly after Nathalie’s fall, Alya’s phone pinged, though she remained glued to the illusory Chat Noir and Ladybug’s sides she’d drifted to the back of the room for a little bit more peace and quiet. Keeping up an illusion always made her tired and maintaining one such as this for this many people was draining her in a way she’d never experienced. She’d gotten one of the waiters to bring her an espresso about 10 minutes ago, she’d downed the entire boiling hot cup in seconds, not caring if she signed her taste buds off completely because she would take any energy she could get at this stage. Discreetly checking her phone, Alya had to hold in her joyful whoop as she read Nino’s message. He’d done it. They’d done it. A small smile on her face as the only hint toward what she’d just read on her phone, Alya had her illusions begin to say their goodbyes and make their way toward the exit. It took longer than she’d wanted because people kept asking for Ladybug’s autograph and each time she’d had the illusory form of her best friend decline, she’d felt more and more guilty. 

Once each of the illusions was out the door, herself included, Alya released Trixx from the necklace and fed the starving Kwami before making her way, dead on her feet, to the garden where Nino had said he was so she could collapse into her boyfriend’s arms and pass the fuck out.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Once Adrien and Marinette had arrived in the room, Kagami had slipped out and kept an eye on Alya from the other side of the room. She could see that her friend was getting tired but she kept her distance so she didn’t blow Alya’s cover, after a little while, Kagami saw Alya check her phone and grin slightly. The fake Ladybug and Chat Noir started to say their goodbyes and push through the crowd to the stairs so they could leave, realising that this meant that Nino had done it and that Luka needed to get to the box and out of here as soon as possible, Kagami turned on her heel and walked back into the room where Chloe, Marinette, Adrien and Luka were. 

“Viperion, Queen Bee, if I may be so blunt, I think your friends are leaving,” Adrien’s bodyguard had ignored Kagami as she entered, the small Japanese girl addressing her superhero friends with no hint of recognition. 

Luka looked confused for a moment before he realised what she was trying to say. “Queenie, looks like Buggaboo and Kitty Chat are makin’ a move, do we wanna get a move on too?” Using his head to gesture toward the door, Luka tried to give Chloe a subtle ‘we need to go, Nino’s done it’ without actually saying the words. Luckily, Chloe hadn’t taken as long as Luka had to read between the lines of what Kagami had said, understanding fully.

“Mr Agreste, please contact me once she is better. I would very much like to pay her a visit and make sure she’s alright,” Leaning down slightly to speak to Adrien, Chloe’s voice was soft and reassuring. Unable to form words at the moment as he watched Nathalie’s chest rise and fall so, so slowly, Adrien just nodded. “We’d best be off. I do hope that Rena and Ryuko didn’t lose Carapace in the crowd, it’s almost as if he turns invisible.”

Sweeping out of the room, Chloe fixed Gabriel with a cold stare that the older man didn’t flinch at or even react to, not that she’d expected him to. He’d actually gone further than she’d expected when he met her gaze. Luka on her heels, Chloe made her way across the ballroom and exited just after Alya and the illusions of Nino and Kagami. Allowing the other girl to disappear into the darkness to the left of the door, Chloe and Luka disappeared to the right and released their Kwamis. 

“I’m going to go find Sabby,” Tucking Pollen’s box into the carefully hidden pocket of her dress, Chloe didn’t linger before taking the long route around the side of the house, to the gardens opposite to the one Nino and Alya were now resting in together, and back into the ballroom through large, open glass doors.

“We didn’t do a lot,” Kagami’s sudden voice caused Luka to jump. His heart racing.

“You scared me,” Turning to face his girlfriend, Luka opened his arms for her to walk into. “But I guess that it’s good that we didn’t do a lot, if we’d had to it might’ve meant that something went seriously wrong.”

Allowing Luka to wrap his arms around her waist, Kagami hooked her arms around his neck and let him sway her for a few moments to the melody of the faint classical music emanating from within the ballroom. “Let’s get the box and go,”

“Let’s?” Grinning down at the girl in his arms, Luka squeezed Kagami lightly.

“I’m coming with you. You didn’t think you were going to whisk the box away by yourself, did you?”

“Hmmm,” He let out a noncommittal hum that Kagami responded to with a joking scoff and a gentle smack to the side of his head. “I’d pretty much expected you to come with me, Echo, we make a good team.”

“That we do, Strings, that we do,”


	22. Chapter 22

“Hello, I’m Nadja Chamack with today’s news. The supervillain known as Hawkmoth was apprehended today after Ladybug and Chat Noir provided evidence to the police on his identity and his direct involvement to the ‘akumatisation’ of Parisians. Gabriel Agreste, renowned fashion designer and head of the Agreste brand, was revealed to be behind Hawkmoth’s mask, his son, Adrien, newly 18 has taken over as CEO of the Agreste Brand with Ms Nathalie Sancouer, Gabriel Agreste’s former assistant, acting as his proxy. Ms Sancouer has also confirmed that she has, in fact, adopted Adrien Agreste and that she has made the decision to remove Adrien from the public eye for the time being. Police Captain Raincomprix has set up police units surrounding the Agreste mansion to ensure that Mr Agreste and Ms Sancouer’s privacy is respected. 

“This devastating discovery comes a week after Adrien’s 18th birthday, which was held at the Chateau de Agreste in Alsace last Friday, where Ladybug, Chat Noir and the rest of their superhero team were said to have been in attendance. One of our interns was lucky enough to be at the celebration itself and capture footage of one of the superheroes, known as Queen Bee, saved a civilian as they took a fall from a balcony. It’s confirmed that this civilian is okay and taking some much needed rest at home with their family. Gabriel Agreste is currently being held at La Sante prison without bail and heavy restrictions regarding visitors; the date for his trial has not yet been set but the Ministere Public has released a statement saying that it will begin soon and will not be open to public viewing as a normal case would be.

“That’s all for tonight, I’m Nadja Chamack, don’t be bemused, it’s just the news!”

Leaning against the doorframe, Adrien watched Nathalie switch the tv off and stand, slightly shakily, before she turned to face him with a sad smile.

“Are you okay?” Moving around the couch, Nathalie gently placed her hands on Adrien’s shoulders and looked up at him with worried eyes. He was stressed and not taking his father’s arrest well, though Nathalie had seen first hand that Marinette was more stressed about Gabriel’s arrest than Adrien was and she had to wonder if Adrien was worried for his father at all or if the haggard, reserved look on his face came from worry for someone else entirely.

“I’m fine but I don’t think you should be the one asking that. How’s your head?” Looking at the bandage afixed to Nathalie’s temple, Adrien checked that no blood was spotting the white linen as a tell tale sign of her having torn her stitches again. After her fall from the balcony, Nathalie had needed 8 stitches and had been prescribed medicine for her blood pressure, once news had gotten out about Gabriel being Hawkmoth, her doctor’s demeanor had changed to become one more understanding of the situation the poor woman was in. 

“It’s alright, Adrien, I haven’t torn them again,” The night after Nathalie had come home from the hospital, she’d had a severe panic attack as she stepped through the doors of the Agreste mansion. The attack ending with her having torn 6 of her stitches and requiring the Agreste family’s preferred doctor to come to the mansion to stitch her up again. “I sent an email to all the news stations this morning asking that they respect our privacy. I doubt they will but at least Nadja Chamack has the dignity to say that we want it.”

“You need to worry less, Mum,” Hooking Nathalie’s arm into the crook of his elbow, Adrien led her to the dining room and helped her into her chair, right across the table from him. “Sabine and Mari dropped over a lasagna a few hours ago, I just took it out of the oven so I’ll be right back, okay?” Adrien dropped a kiss to the top of Nathalie’s forehead before disappearing through the salon doors leading into the kitchen.

After the whole Hawkmoth debacle, Nathalie and Adrien had decided to cut down on the amount of staff within the mansion. They’d made sure to hand write letters of recommendation for each of the staff members they’d let go, making sure to sign with both their names to ensure that Gabriel’s now tarnished reputation wouldn’t hinder them in getting new employment. The mansion felt even bigger and more empty without them but Nathalie had to admit that it felt even more like a home now that it was just her, Adrien and, occasionally, Jean-Luc Gorrille. She’d begun to look at smaller places for them to live, Adrien having caught her looking at some and having lit up so brightly at the idea of living somewhere smaller, quieter, easier to turn from just a house and into a home. She’d never been happier.

Emerging from the kitchen with two steaming plates of lasaga, a set of cutlery held in his mouth as another hung precariously between his fingers beneath one of the plates, Adrien tried to announce himself with a muffled ‘ta-da’ before he placed Nathalie’s plate down in front of her carefully and handed her the cutlery he’d been holding beneath the plate. Taking his set out of his mouth, Adrien moved around the table and took his seat.

“You know, it’s actually kinda sad,” Using his fork to cut away a small chunk of the lasagna, Adrien looked up at Nathalie with a wry smile.

“What’s kinda sad?”

“That neither of us can cook and yet we’re the ones preparing our meals,” 

“I hope you mean ‘preparing’ very loosely because all you did was heat this up, Sabine and Marinette made it,”

“Damnit, Mum, why’ve you got to go ruining everything?” Laughing, Adrien spoke with joking accusation in his voice as he pointed his fork at Nathalie.

“Language, young man!” Kicking the joke right back to Adrien, Nathalie’s laughed joined his. “Or I’ll have to wash your mouth out with soap and send you off to your room!”

“Remember when you actually had to wash my mouth out with soap?” 

“Yes! How could I forget?”

Sitting at the table together, reminiscing about happy memories of the past, both Nathalie and Adrien were given the very rare chance to forget about what was happening beyond the walls of the mansion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leaning against the railing bordering her balcony, wind ruffling her dark hair as it lifted off the seine, Marinette looked out across the city toward the Agreste mansion.

“Hey Princess,” Dropping down behind her on light feet, Chat Noir walked up to his girlfriend and wrapped his black clad arms around her waist, pressing a kiss to her shoulder as she leant back into his warmth

“Hey Chaton,” Nuzzling her head up under his chin, she felt him squeeze her more tightly against him. “How’re you feeling?”

“I’m alright, I think I did my grieving for him a long time ago,”

“I feel guilty...it feels like I took him away from you,”

Pressing a firm kiss to the crown of her head, Chat gently rubbed his thumb across Mari’s stomach. “You can’t take away something that wasn’t there in the first place, Mari,”

“But what if he could’ve changed?” It sounded as if she was pleading with him. Shaking his head, rubbing his chin against the top of her head as he did, Chat refrained from telling Marinette that his father wasn’t worthy of her remorse or guilt because he knew that it wouldn’t change anything, it wouldn’t change her mind or take away how she was feeling. “What if he could’ve changed, Adrien, and I took that chance away from him?”

“We’ll never know, Princess, and sometimes it’s better not knowing,”

“Ignorance is bliss, isn’t it?”

“To some people, maybe, but for us, I’d like to think that ignorance is happiness. If we stop asking ‘what if’ then we won’t have to feel the same pain twice,”

“Sometimes you say the smartest things and I have seriously no idea where it comes from,”

“It only happens when Nino lets me use the braincell,”

“Nino lets you use the braincell?” Mari let out a deep, rich laugh. “Which one of you broke it then because it almost never seems to work.”

“No comment,”

“Saying ‘no comment’ is still commenting,”

“You’re too smart for your own good,”

“Well, Chaton, one of us has to be otherwise god knows what would’ve happened to Paris by now,”

Pointing out toward the Eiffel Tower with a claw tipped finger, a grin hidden in her hair, Chat drew Mari’s attention to the colours dancing upon it. “Well, there would be a big statue of me right over there, big enough for you to see from here and swoon over,”

“What about a statue of me?”

“Hmmm,” He pretended to think for a moment, drawing giggles out of the girl in his arms. “I think I’d put a statue of you right outside my window so I could look at it all the time.”

“That’s kinda creepy,”

“Then, instead of a statue, how about you just stand outside my window forever?”

“Oh my god, no,” Thinking of the snowfall of Paris winters and the stifling gummy heat of French summers, Mari shuddered. “No, no thank you.”

“How about a compromise then?”

“What compromise do you suggest?”

“I get to look at you all the time ‘cause you live with me,” 

Mari paused, her heart thundering in time with Chat’s against her back. “Let me finish university and then we’ll see,”

“You got accepted?” Pulling away from her, Chat turned her around slightly to look Marinette in the eye, gently pressing her back against the cold iron railing behind her.

“Yeah, I got accepted for a fashion and design degree,” 

“Oh my god, I’m so proud of you,” Gripping the backs of Mari’s thighs, Chat lifted her up onto the railing and held her securely, more wary of balconies and such since Nathalie’s fall on his birthday, before pressing his lips to hers firmly. “I don’t know if there’s a time when I’m ever not proud of you.”

“Sometimes, you make no sense at all,” Wrapping her arms around his neck, Marinette pulled Chat Noir back into their kiss, the two of them illuminated by the lights of Paris and of the silvery moon beyond. This was a new world, a world without Hawkmoth, and there wasn’t a way in hell that either of them were going to let it slip through their fingers.


	23. Prologue ~ The Emilie Graham-de-Vanily Academy of Art

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final installment of Glass Roses. Thank you so much for reading and I really hope you enjoyed this fic. I do have another Miraculous Ladybug in the works currently and I do upload all of my works to tumblr first, you can find me @PessimisticLatte. Anyway, I hope this wraps my story up in a nice lil bow!

Walking through the barren halls of what had once been the Agreste mansion with his last box of things, Adrien said goodbye to the place that he’d called home for so many years. Gabriel had been found guilty of his crimes against the people of Paris and was currently serving a life sentence without even the slightest hope of parole, his time in La Sante had started just over 18 months ago now with the discovery of Adrien’s comatose mother happening not too long after. The media storm that had followed Emilie’s discovery had Adrien afraid to step out of the house for weeks, he hadn’t known that the woman he’d thought long dead was actually just a vegetable being kept beneath the house he rarely ever left and no matter how many times he’d repeated it, the media hadn’t listened. It’d taken Mari, beautiful, sweet Mari, standing in front of the camping reporters and unleashing the full torrent of her anger upon them for the media to finally decide to cut Adrien and Nathalie a break. 

This move hadn’t been sudden. He’d proposed to Marinette two weeks ago, the both of them at the tender age of 19, and she’d agreed, saying that they would wait first and not rush into getting married. She’d assured him that she wasn’t getting cold feet and that she didn’t think that they weren’t going to last, she just wanted to take things slow because they had all the time in the world and she wasn’t even going to consider paying for a wedding until they’d lived together for a while and she’d finished her degree. Begrudgingly, Adrien had agreed to Mari’s terms and they’d found this beautiful little studio apartment not too far from Mari’s university or the old Agreste mansion, soon to be the Emilie Graham-de-Vanily Academy of Art, which Adrien had decided to turn into a place of happy memories instead of harsh, lonely ones.

Uncovering Emilie hadn’t been easy for Nathalie, she knew that Emilie was down there but she didn’t know how to tell her son that she was, so she’d left it until it was too late. Doctors had checked over the comatose woman again, a few of them instilling false hope in her that Emilie would wake up and be able to return to a normal life, but there was nothing that could be done and Adrien made the decision to let Emilie go. It hadn’t been easy, unlike his father, there was a possibility for his mother to actually have a chance to be just that instead of neglecting him but she’d been comatose for so long that it was unlikely she’d even be a shadow of her former self if she woke up and the longer she remained the way she was, the less likely she was to wake up and the more likely it was that her body would give out, making the decision for him. Nathalie and Adrien had made sure that Emilie got a proper funeral, her twin sister and parents coming to take part in the ceremony Gabriel had denied them; allowing Adrien to reconnect with his cousin Felix and meet Felix’s new girlfriend, Bridgette.

The last 18 months had been a whirlwind of pain and so many overwhelming emotions but now he was getting a fresh start in a little, modest apartment with the woman he loved while sharing his love of art and music with the world through the not-for-profit academy he’d named after the mother he’d once wished to know in honour of the mother who’d raised him.

Walking through the entrance way for the last time, box beneath his arm, the doors open wide before him so the heat and sunlight could stream into the cold, marble foyer, Adrien took one last look at the Agreste mansion before Mari, her hair newly shorn into a bouncy pixie cut that framed her face and made her look even more beautiful, grabbed him arm with a laugh and dragged him out to the car. Closing the doors one last time, Adrien Agreste said goodbye to the past and descended the stairs with his fiancee, out into a future filled with infinite possibilities.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all,
> 
> I hope you enjoyed chapter 1! I'm uploading all the chapters I've written (17 of them as of April 9th 2020) today and I'll keep adding chapters to both this work here on AO3 and my Tumblr account, where I'm most active! If you'd like to give my Tumblr a follow (and please do because you can give me prompts and stuff there that I'm more likely to see than on here) you can find me at @PessimisticLatte!  
> Be gay, go to space!
> 
> Rosie


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